Healthcare, Giubileo and his team at the helm of the Region. These are the topics at the center of the interview made by the director of , Tommaso Cerno, to the president of Lazio Francesco Rocca during the inaugural day of «Itaca 2024, viaggio tra le idee» held yesterday in Piazza San Lorenzo in Formello.
At the opening, the governor sets some stakes to describe the past, present and future of the regional healthcare sector. “We inherited 22 billion euros of debt. A figure that we will carry with us for many years, but I am proud of the fact that we have not generated new debt”. It is the first jab at his predecessor Nicola Zingaretti (PD). Shortly after, Rocca specifies that every year “a billion of taxpayers is used to honor loans previously contracted” but that, on October 1, during the next ministerial table, “the balance with resources” could be announced. With a hint of pride, he claims that “130 million euros have been found to balance the healthcare budget”, a result that should be written down in black and white in ten days.
President Rocca reels off other data: «As soon as the council took office, the projection fluctuated around 700 million in losses, we have eliminated it». A circumstance that allows Cerno to recall that Zingaretti’s regional hospital plan took into account health facilities that were only present on paper. The governor seizes the assist: «My predecessor had promised five hospitals. Personally, I prefer to say “no” instead of a lie. The plan for the new hospital network», which also benefits from the 1.6 billion euro allocation from Inail, «will lead all the provinces to have three beds for every thousand inhabitants, in some of them this ratio is stuck at 1.9».
At this point, Governor Rocca reveals some details about a Roman structure in the planning phase. “The Umberto I is the most important hospital in Italy. Dialogue with La Sapienza University on this dossier was a must. But as I imagined – adds the President of Lazio – building it on the Viale del Policlinico is impossible, as certified by the technical table. We have a place with the necessary cubic capacity, an enormous area at Pertini. Eight hundred cubic meters for the new hospital. Citizens in the vicinity of the current Policlinico will be served by a scaled-down hospital: from 1,100 to 300 beds, but the very high specialization will move to the Pertini area”. The reference to the University is not coincidental, given that the Umberto I area will be redeveloped, a project that involves about 50 buildings. “Where we will carry out – says Governor Rocca – a university building project, making the most beautiful university campus in Europe. Indeed, but maybe that will be a problem for the next mayor of Rome, I thought that by closing Viale dell’Università, that area could become a wonderful campus.”
Works, Cerno reminds his interlocutor, which in most cases are counted with the “countdown” marked by the beginning of the Jubilee. «Every two weeks, together with the mayor of Rome we go to Palazzo Chigi to take stock with the undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano. Some construction sites will end during the Jubilee event, for example by next spring the Castelli Romani hospital will be completed». The event scheduled for 2025 provides the opportunity to remind President Rocca that «this is an unmissable opportunity also for the suburbs».
The Jubilee theme opens another, closely related to it: security. Rome could be seen as an antagonist of fundamentalist Islam. “I detest everything that is radical. I hope that we can recover the ability to be European to the core and above all the possibility of fully expressing Western values. In this perspective, the nomination of Raffaele Fitto as executive vice-president of the European Commission with responsibility for cohesion policies is a sign of Italian protagonism”.
Just at that moment, the regional councilor for Personnel, Luisa Regimenti, arrives in the audience. Together with her colleague Giuseppe Schiboni (with responsibility for School Policies), both from Forza Italia, they boycotted the last meeting of the regional council. A sign of a certain fibrillation within the majority. President Rocca plays it safe: «With Luisa, whom I greet, and FI, there is no problem. We are working to find a solution».
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2024-09-22 16:00:57
