all vehicles managed by 118. “150 drivers already enrolled”
Stop to private individuals to manage the emergency transport of the sick with the ambulances. By this year the Region wants to “internalize” the vehicles (and crews) throughout the Province of Rome and most of those in Rieti and Latina, then for this route in the rest of Lazio by 2023. A necessary decision to limit costs and service, given that the “outsiders” often do not have life-saving medical equipment on board their cars cutting edge. “When fully operational – they explain from via Cristoforo Colombo – it is as if we found ourselves with about twenty more ambulances, because we put more functional vehicles into circulation. Useful even more so today with the blocks of the machines in front of the emergency room ».
The Health Department of via Cristoforo Colombo has already launched a plan that includes the purchase by Ares, the regional body that manages the service, of new ambulances and the entry into its staff of part of the employees now in charge to individuals. More generally, the provision of 33 vehicles has already been arranged through a loan of almost 5 million euros, 150 drivers have already been “enrolled” (recovered from arrival in a specific notice) and 150 nurses (in turn chosen from the ranking for the competition of Sant’Andrea), waiting to take and train others.
As mentioned, by the end of this year, all ambulances and self-medical services in Rome and the Province (156 vehicles) and part of those in Rieti and Latina will be under the control of 118. Only in the capital, currently, there is still an assignment for about twenty external cars. And with very high costs: it goes from 33 thousand euros a month for a self-service to 47 thousand for an ambulance running 24 hours. Private vehicles will be used either for control services during major events (such as the May Day Concert) or for “secondary” transfers, to move the sick from one hospital to another.
THE NUMBERS
It is not excluded to buy other ambulances, in addition to the 267 of the fleet. However, this process is experiencing many obstacles, because the health service is still suffering from the effects of Covid and the crowding in hospital emergency rooms, where the lack of places in outpatient wards forces health facilities also to use ambulances as beds for sick people. With the stop to individuals, then, the Region also wants to improve the equipment of the vehicles: with the latest calls for tenders, the Ares 118 has only purchased cars equipped with heart massagers and ecofast, in addition to defibrillators. «In this way – they always explain from the Region – we obtain two advantages: with machines such as the heart massager the operator is free to do other support activities and we can dare an extra chance to the most seriously ill. So to save more lives “.
Meanwhile, in recent days, Ares has launched a new procedure for sorting patients, where the 118 center decides – based on the flow of patients – to which hospital the ambulance should take the sick. The objective of the Region is to decongest the structures with greater access, but according to the unions this provision could already create some problems.
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED