Campaign For A Living Venice

The Confartigianato and the Municipality ask Brugnaro to intervene.

By Eugenio Pendolini

27 March 2019

The downgrading of the Ospedale Civile to a “basic unit” continues to generate discussion. The threat, looking ahead, is the reduction of funding and services, and therefore of the quality of medical care. The Municipality of Venice, in a request sent to Ca’ Farsetti, is asking the Mayor to be a spokesman for the concerns of the citizens with the Veneto Regional Government. “We want to know – goes the contents of the document – if the Mayor, who is responsible for the state of health of the population of the area he governs, and the corresponding Commissioner intend on making the relevant regional offices aware of the special morphological character of Venice, in particular regarding the difficulty of movement, due to the sometimes considerable distances, the need to travel via several means, as well as the growing overcrowding of the boats on the regular lines”. The Municipality says that the downgrade, which based on the number of residents in the region, does not take in to account the characteristics of the lagoon: first of all the distribution of the citizens among the various islands, and then the presence of around 25 million tourists each year. What’s more, the measure goes against the goal of giving health care in Venice top priority in a wider program of recovery for the city.

Now the body led by Giovanni Martini is asking the Mayor and the Administration what concrete measures they intend to take in order to keep the Ospedale Civile at the “spoke” level. But also, more generally: “What concrete measures will the Mayor and the Administration take to break the current trend of the clearing out of Venice’s residential fabric, which keeps the city alive, through a continuous downgrading of the services in place and relocation of businesses and services to the mainland”. On this subject Gianni De Checci (secretary of the Confartigianato* Venezia) also spoke. The downgrade, he argues, is one of the “worst political messages of the last thirty years”. And it’s not just a question of mere organization: “If a complete urban center is also judged by it services, Venice has lost them all, even to renew the license plates for boats you have to go do it at Mira. If a region loses its socioeconomic vitality, and the fundamental services for the citizens, as has now been demonstrated for years, you reduce it to a park”. The reduction of the Ospedale Civile to the basic level is for the Confartigianato di Venezia the “final signature” to Venice’s status as the capital of the region. In the future, the most prestigious doctors will stay far away from a series B hospital, and the future of young Venetians is now sealed. And so for De Checchi the only way to avoid models of the city that are composed of retirees and tourists is to make one’s voice heard. A public assembly will be held Sunday at 11 in campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo.

Source: La Nuova Venezia

*Confartigianato: Confederazione generale italiana dell’artigianato (General Federation of Italian Artisans and Craftsmen).