Disability and discrimination in the health service. Rome, Lazio

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Ambulance, 2 hours of waiting

A wheelchair he flips backwards, facing yet another architectural barrier to enter a shop. Dry fall on the back (already bad) of a quadriplegic, possible vertebral trauma. 118.

Hypothermia and immobility do not count, the yellow code is valid for all ages and physical conditions. The reminders are useless. Two hours of waiting for an ambulance, on a Saturday in winter, is the cliff of Sparta in Roman sauce. The stretcher bearers allege that they are stuck in the emergency room due to a shortage of beds. Maybe.

San Camillo Forlanini, Kabul. Indeed Rome

A war hospital the emergency room of San Camillo Forlanini is unveiled, with all the good will of some doctors, nurses and OSS. Others have made the call, in this Kabul of Rome. The handicapped who is cold will fuck himself, 'if the blanket was there we had given it to him'. And if he burns the skin that macerates sores every year, on his backside, he'll fuck himself. 'There is no bedside emergency room, but what are you looking for?'.

11 hours they may be enough to get a CT scan. Covid has little or nothing to do with radiology and even more with the inattention to those who have some simple needs that the hospital complex neglects completely:

- accessibility of the bathrooms. Mixed use of the bathrooms which should be reserved for the disabled. Handles torn from the walls, unavailable. Absence of protections on the toilet where iron hooks stand out, ideal for tearing the skin. Taps for sanitary hygiene without pipes and showers,

- anti-decubitus pillows and mattresses for stretcher or bed, not available. As well as urocondom, often needed by men with neurological bladder. 'But how do you do it? If we hospitalize them then the pharmacy orders what is needed'. And in the meantime? He arranges himself, macerates sores, gets wet in his own urine.

Disability, discrimination and public health

To the medical director of the San Camillo Forlanini hospital and to the primary of the Emergency Department of Kabul - Rome Portuense we try to report the above, attaching a couple of images of the bathrooms made available to the disabled. We ask them to explain the level of hygiene and dignity reserved for men and especially for the most fragile women, in the structure for which they are responsible.

To the president of the Lazio Region Nicola Zingaretti asked what the problem is, what needs to be done to be able to wait for an ambulance for less than two hours, in the cold, in yellow code. Elderly, disabled, frail people suffer. It's a money problem, can we maybe help him, let's launch a petition for Kabul - Rome? Or maybe you need to call for help in another municipality or region?

Public health and disability, the UN Convention

La A Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, (CRPD, 2006) - UN Convention for the rights of people with disabilities, implemented in Italy with law 18/2009, in force since 15.3.09 - applies not only to 3,1 million disabled people 'certified' by INPS and registered by ISTAT. But also to all those who have - 'long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which - in interaction with various attitudinal and environmental barriers - prevent their full participation in society on an equal basis with others'(CRPD).

Fragile people - among which there is a growing share of elderly people - however, they continue to be excluded from any attention from politics and public administration, as well as from civil society. We therefore also remind ministers Roberto Speranza and Erika Stefani one of the various articles of the UN CRPD Convention. Always in the original English language since Italy - unlike Kenya, Bangladesh and Cambodia among others - has not yet provided for its official translation.

UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 25 - Health

'States Parties recognize that persons with disabilities have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination on the basis of disability. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure access for persons with disabilities to health services that are gender-sensitive, including health-related rehabilitation. In particular, States Parties shall:

a) Provide persons with disabilities with the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care and programs as provided to other persons, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based public health programs;

b) Provide those health services needed by persons with disabilities specifically because of their disabilities, including early identification and intervention as appropriate, and services designed to minimize and prevent further disabilities, including among children and older persons;

c) Provide these health services as close as possible to people's own communities, including in rural areas;

d) Require health professionals to provide care of the same quality to persons with disabilities as to others, including on the basis of free and informed consent by, inter alia, raising awareness of the human rights, dignity, autonomy and needs of persons with disabilities through training and the promulgation of ethical standards for public and private health care;

e) Prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities in the provision of health insurance, and life insurance where such insurance is permitted by national law, which shall be provided in a fair and reasonable manner;

f) Prevent discriminatory denial of health care or health services or food and fluids on the basis of disability. '

# égalité!

Dario Dongo

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