500 million thrown away –

In the last week, over 100,000 Covid swabs were done in Italy, “at an average of 15 euros per test in a pharmacy, but the molecular ones processed in hospital end up costing even more, this ‘swab factory’ ends up costing the health system 2 million euros a week”, explains Matteo Bassetti, director of Infectious Diseases at the San Martino Polyclinic Hospital in Genoa. “If we add the cost of hospitalizations, in the last week there have been 350 more but 80-85% are subjects who do not have pneumonia but are colonized by the virus, therefore they are positive without symptoms but must be placed in separate spaces or ‘bubbles’ in the hospital – he reports to Adnkronos Salute – All this brings the cost of this hospitalization to double for the NHS because in a room where there are 2 patients there must be only one, then reducing the bed spaces and increasing the need for staff. A weekly calculation for this expense is around 4-6 million euros per week. If we add the cost of the Covid ‘swab test’ and that of hospitalizations we arrive – every week – at a range that varies between 6-10 million therefore 40 million per month and – with a conservative estimate – 500 million euros per year”.

“These 500 million are basically the entire expense item for waiting lists – continues Bassetti – It means throwing these resources away on Covid. It is clear that the rush to swab is also the result of media alarmism. We are talking about public money and perhaps the Court of Auditors should intervene”. Bassetti clarifies that “nobody wants to take away swabs from those who arrive at the hospital with a serious and challenging respiratory form, but in the summer of 2024, focusing solely on Covid as if it were the only respiratory health problem to look for in Italy is – he states – a relentlessness that has no medical and scientific reason”.

In short, “this is the country where they plaster a fracture with cardboard and at the same time spend up to 500 million euros a year on Covid swabs, a virus that is no longer a problem. Public health is in disarray, it has many problems and these amounts are spent in an anachronistic way. Let’s try to change things at least for next autumn: we need new clear rules on swabs on who must do them and they must be requested by doctors, let’s stop this do-it-yourself”, the expert comments again.