After three doctors were fined a total of €37,000 (about $39,200) for working too much during the COVID-19 outbreak, Italy's Ministry of Health committed to adjusting severe employment restrictions affecting medical staff.
According to the Guardian, Italian health minister Orazio Schillaci made these remarks when Vito Procacci, head of the emergency department at the main hospital in Bari, Puglia, revealed that he had been penalized €27,000 ($28,000) by the regional labor inspectorate for failing to take required breaks and working excessive overtime. Two of his hospital coworkers were also fined a total of €10,000 ($10,600).
Procacci contacted Italian President Sergio Mattarella by letter, and with his help, the sanctions were temporarily lifted.
In the letter sent to Mattarella, Procacci said his hospital saved 8,600 lives during the outbreak, and he is "dismayed and disappointed" by the state's treatment of him.
Challenges Facing Healthcare System
This news has sparked a discussion about the stresses placed on Italy's healthcare system as specialists leave the country.
Procacci remarked on Facebook, "Yesterday we were heroes; today we are transgressors." He went on to say that the sanctions were a slap in the face not just to Italian healthcare personnel but to all Italians who had to endure loss and pain as a result of the pandemic, as reported by the Guardian.
Schillaci has said that regulation changes are necessary to prevent employees from being penalized for working extra hours. "We are ready to offer all our support to find the most suitable solutions so that these regulations are quickly corrected, the sanctions are cancelled, and an end is put to this paradoxical affair. The state cannot sanction its own doctors and health workers after having asked for, and obtained, an extraordinary commitment from them at a time of exceptional emergency."
A trade union complained about the excessive work hours of medical workers in 2021, prompting Labor Minister Marina Calderone to announce that an inspection had been conducted at the hospital in Bari. She also noted that the inspectorate would conduct follow-up inquiries into the suspension of imposed sanctions over the following several days.
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In Europe, the first nation to have a significant spread of COVID-19 was Italy, where it prompted healthcare workers to put in long hours under difficult circumstances. The National Federation of the Orders of Doctors and Dental Surgeons (FNOMCEO) reports that 381 healthcare professionals have died from the infection as of the most current count.
The doctors' fines brought attention to a public health system that has lost over 11,000 medics since 2021 due to professionals leaving for better pay and working conditions in the private sector or overseas due to poor wages and high stress. Among the health professionals leaving the country, the vast majority had relocated to Gulf nations. Saudi Arabia was the most in-demand location, followed by the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain.
