Isabella Ciotti’s report on La7, entitled “Investigation into Abruzzo healthcare”, was broadcast today, highlighting the difficulties that patients have to face due to the healthcare debt of the Abruzzo Region.
In particular, the service tells the story of Giuseppe, a heart patient, who had to bring his own medicines from home during his last hospitalization at the L’Aquila hospital of a patient from Lanciano who went to the Lanciano hospital.
During the broadcast, the president of the regional council Marco Marsilio promised to look into individual cases in more detail, however categorically denying that people would be asked to procure medicines to take to hospital, including the most expensive ones, underlining that “if one were to deny medicines to someone it would be in prison” and also specifying that in the case of the drug that the person with Chron’s disease would have found with difficulty, the problem, which was immediately resolved, would have been determined by a mere logistical problem.
The general director of the ASL, Thomas Schael, precisely on this last part of the investigation, states that “in response to the statements that appeared on La7 during the broadcast L’Aria Che Tira and concerning the ASL Lanciano-Vasto-Chieti it is necessary to provide some clarifications useful to refute the erroneous/specious “media square” which has seen as protagonists some subjects/operators who have offered themselves for television ‘consumption’.
“In particular – says Schael – regarding the case relating to the patient suffering from an immune-mediated disease who went to the Lanciano hospital to collect his therapy, it is specified that the medicine in question (easily identifiable from the packaging) is a biological medicine which is was, at the time of negotiation in AIFA, classified (see Official Journal) in reimbursement class H and, therefore, collectible (and not purchasable) only in hospital pharmacies in direct distribution. Therefore, proposing the price to the public on television cannot absolutely correspond (even if not explicitly stated) to a direct purchase by the customer.
For the sake of clarification, it is also reported that the same interviewee erroneously declared the package price (retail price) which on similar drugs is very different (much higher) from the price of sale to the NHS. Other clarifications relate to the misleading statements made by the Chieti hospital doctor who incorrectly declared that the strategic management (and/or the Region) forces the same healthcare workers to use the least effective drugs. Citizens must be reminded that before being put on the market, medicines go through a careful evaluation process that begins at European level and ends at national level. In this context the EMA (European Medicines Agency) carefully evaluates the evidence of efficacy and safety of drugs and in cascade the Aifa (Italian Medicines Agency), after a further evaluation of the scientific evidence (efficacy and safety), decides both on the reimbursement class of the drug and on the marketing price. It seems clear that a similar (and well-structured) process does not allow ineffective drugs to be made available.
In addition – continues the general director – and referring to the case of antibiotic therapy (subject of the broadcast), it is even more evident that the statements made by the operator are antithetical to all the actions carried out in this area whose mere purpose was to to increase the appropriate use of antimicrobials. This recommendation does not arise from an ‘unholy’ local need but rather finds strong roots in the many international scientific evidences and recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) which, at all latitudes, has documented how an improper use of antibiotics contributes to selective pressure and determines the development of resistant pathogens.
By way of pure health eventuality (which is very clear to those involved in public health and less clear, perhaps, to the doctor interviewed) since 2019 the WHO has included resistance to antibiotics among the top ten global threats to health and has recommended to various nations to increase conscious use. Data from the Abruzzo Region document a massive use of antibiotics (+10% on the national consumption average – see OsMed Report – Use of antibiotics) and a constant increase over the last few years (+1.6% compared to a national -16%). This unhealthy prescribing habit is capable of determining an increase in infections caused by bacteria resistant to antimicrobials (Mdro) with a consequent increase in morbidity and mortality (in Europe every year there are 33,000 deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance).
Therefore, to clarify, it is reported that, with a view to containing the development of antibiotic resistance and in compliance with the objectives of the National Plan to Combat Antibiotic Resistance (Pncar) 2022-2025, it was decided at hospital level to limit the access of some antibiotic molecules to infectious disease prescription only (specialist in the field), leaving other molecules to the remaining specialists, recommending appropriate use and at adequate dosages/duration.
Schael also announced that he will present “a complaint to the prosecutor’s office against the yet to be identified AAL employee who made the statements on the broadcast”.
