The mayor of a town of 1,2 people in southern Italy has issued a decree banning citizens from getting sick, in protest at the lack of health services in the municipality.
The measure was taken by the mayor of Belcastro, in the Calabria region, Antonio Torchia, who ordered the city's residents to “avoid contracting any illness that requires medical intervention, especially urgent ones, and to rest as much as possible.”
“The decree obviously represents an ironic provocation, but I must say that it is producing more results than the dozens of documents that I sent to the provincial health agency to denounce the shortcomings in the health care service,” Torchia told ANSA.
According to the mayor, the medical care service in the municipality has been operating intermittently due to the shortage of health workers, a particularly serious situation in a village where more than half of the population is elderly.
Furthermore, the nearest emergency room is at the Hospital of Catanzaro, capital of the province of the same name, 45 kilometers away from Belcastro – in Italy, the health system is a national and regional responsibility.
“This is a delicate situation and difficult to manage.
I have been waiting since last June for the activation of the health service, a right guaranteed by the Constitution, but no one has given me an answer so far,” added the mayor.
Torchia hopes the ban will “shake some consciences at the political level.”
Otherwise, he threatened to file a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office for “interruption of public service”. (HANDLE)
