The village of Belcastro, Italy
The rule aims to draw attention to the lack of labor in the Calabria region and across the country, where there is a shortage of healthcare professionals.
Antonio Torchiamunicipal mayor of the village of Belcastro in southern Calabria, Italy, instructs residents to “avoid contracting any disease or pathology that requires medical intervention” and to avoid getting involved in accidents or taking risks that could endanger their health, the media in the region.
Residents are also recommended to stay at home, without going out even to play sports or travel, explains the .
It seems like an ironic rule, as it is intended to warn about the lack of health professionals in the region, but the president warns that it should be taken very seriously: “It’s not just a provocation”Torchia told . “The decree is a cry for help, a way of drawing attention to an unacceptable situation.”
In Belcastro, half of the 1200 inhabitants are over 65 years old, and at night there is no health care available. The nearest emergency room is 45 kilometers from the village, in Catanzaro.
One in five inhabitants of the Calabria region has to look for doctors in other regions of the country. According to the latest government data, there are around 1700 general practitioners in the region for a population of almost two million inhabitants.
Since 2022, the government hired hundreds of Cuban doctors to respond to this problem, but researchers believe that an additional 2,500 doctors would be needed for health care to function normally.
To make matters worse, every year, around 1000 Italian doctors emigrate. “If we do not provide essential services, these cities, these villages will die within ten years“, complains President de Belcastro.
