Shock report into Italian hospitals

Rats in Naples and cats in Milan, unlicensed nurses and expired medicine are among the horrors that emerged from nationwide police inspections of Italian hospitals that left more than 100 people facing possible investigation, health officials said Thursday.

Special health units from the Carabinieri paramilitary police inspected 321 of Italy’s 672 public medical centres this week, reporting limited but often shocking instances of poor hygiene, officials said at a news conference at the Health Ministry in Rome.

The probe was ordered after a magazine investigation last week into one of Rome’s largest hospitals showed images of dog faeces and garbage in the corridors, unguarded radioactive material, abandoned medical records and workers smoking next to patients.

In 36% of the inspected hospitals only administrative violations were found, while in 17% of cases, mostly in the southern and central parts of the country, more serious problems led to 111 people being reported to judicial authorities for possible investigation, the Health Ministry said.

Hundreds of examples of expired drugs were found across Italy, unlicensed nurses were found in Calabria, while some hospital workers in Sicily used friends or family to sign in for work while they moonlighted at other jobs, said Gen. Saverio Cotticelli, head of the unit that made the inspections.

Italian newspapers also reported that police found a colony of stray cats living in the basement of Milan’s San Carlo hospital, while rats were found in the Naples hospital where bulldozers had to be called in to remove piles of garbage and medical refuse left in underground corridors.

Cotticelli confirmed the reports, but declined to give details, insisting that the problems were limited and did not affect patient care.

“The problem of stray animals is one that returns periodically, you exterminate and after a month they are back,” he said. “We found disorder and lack of maintenance ... there are some modest changes to be made, often it’s simply an issue of mentality.”

L’Espresso weekly published an article by a journalist who freely roamed the Umberto I Polyclinic for a month thanks only to his blue cleaner’s uniform. The report denounced poor hygiene that endangered patients by exposing them to an increased risk of hospital infections.

Health Minister Livia Turco promised swift action but also noted that hospital infections affect between 4.5% and 7% of those treated in Italian medical centres, in line with European Union averages.

A 2000 report by the World Health Organisation ranked Italy’s health system as second-best after France. The US came in 37th out of 191 countries ranked by performance.

“Citizens can trust the Italian health system, there are cases of negligence that must be dealt with firmly, there are problems of neglect that must be solved, but there is a lot of good health work being done,” Turco said at the presentation of the inspection’s results.

Turco said the most serious problems were found in Calabria, Sicily and Lazio -the region surrounding Rome- and pledged that local administrators would use the probe’s results to improve the situation.

More control is needed on the outsourcing of services and public tenders, as well as strong investments to modernise many sprawling hospitals that were built in the 19th century, she said.