Lecce, violate the rules for directors: the ASL is storming the departments

Shadows lengthen over the appointment of department directors in the Local Health Authority of Lecce: the Order of Doctors has not established the committee which, according to the regulations, should have proposed to the director general of the time the triad of names from which to choose. If that is the case, an important step envisaged by the very precisely codified nomination procedure would have been skipped. In fact, article 6 of the Regulation on departmental organization, adopted at the time by the ASL, reads as follows: «… the Director of the Department is chosen and appointed by the Director General, among the Managers with the task of managing a complex structure .. among a group of executives indicated by the Department Committee …». If this is the norm, and if, as stated by the president of the Medical Association of Lecce, Donato De Giorgi, “it does not appear that the department committee was ever formed” of which he himself should have been a part as director of a complex structure (De Giorgi is the head of the general surgery department of the Gallipoli hospital), the question is as follows : How was it possible to appoint the heads of the departments in the absence of the important collective body envisaged by the regulation?

The indictment

Departmental directorates are highly coveted positions for reasons of prestige. But it must also be said that those who hold them earn a prerogative of around 22,000 euros a year in addition to their salary. A remuneration that also generates critical mass for the purposes of calculating pensions, which will obviously be more substantial due to the higher contributions paid. The appointment of the department directors took place during the period in which the ASL was governed by the manager Rodolfo Rollo, who resigned from his post after being involved in the “Re Artù” investigation into the alleged links between politics and healthcare for corrupt purposes. “These are acts that concern the previous management of the ASL and on which I cannot express myself”, declares the current general manager Stefano Rossi. And he adds: «A re-evaluation of the perimeters of the various departments is underway, to make them more consistent with the ever-evolving clinical activities. At the end of this revaluation it will be subjected to a comparison with the trade unions, and consequently also the governance of the departments will be brought into line with the regulation”.

Councilor Rocco Palese

The regional councilor for health, Rocco Palese, however, intends to see clearly. And he announces: «I will start the checks to ascertain that the appointments have been made in compliance with the regulation». In the meantime, the burning issue of the Emergency Room in difficulty due to lack of personnel is also gaining momentum, a situation which, as the president of the Medical Association of Lecce, Donato De Giorgi, explains, «in Perrino of Brindisi led to a massive escape of colleagues, making only three remain on the staff». Not only. «Today the strategic management of the ASL of Lecce – adds Donato De Giorgi – arranges medical visits for about 20 colleagues by the competent doctor, given the shortage of doctors in the company emergency rooms, with the aim of establishing suitability for the job of executives who, even 20 years ago, had signed up for service in the emergency room”.

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