A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #6-26 - From Privatization to the War Economy. Tuscan Health, Environment, and Healthcare Coordination (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On Saturday, February 14, the conference "From Privatization to the War 
Economy: In a Sick World, You Cannot Be Healthy" was held in Florence, 
organized by the Tuscan Health, Environment, and Healthcare 
Coordination. The conference marked an important step in the process of 
connecting struggles and sharing initiatives undertaken by the numerous 
participating organizations. It was a moment of counter-information 
aimed at broadening contacts and sparking a major regional mobilization.

The Coordination, established in October 2023, represents a network of 
committees, associations, workers, and citizens who, faced with the 
progressive dismantling of public healthcare in favor of the private 
sector, the reduction and precarity of staff, unequal salaries for 
public and contracted workers, and the worsening of working conditions 
and accessibility to healthcare for those in need, have decided to 
organize, denounce, and oppose this trend. A decline caused by the same 
capitalist and predatory policies responsible for climate catastrophe, 
pollution, land degradation, rising inequality, growing impoverishment, 
widespread job insecurity, and the arms race. Resources are being 
diverted from social spending and allocated to rearmament, the 
militarization of territories, and infrastructure, before reaching 
public healthcare.

The conference attracted numerous stakeholders and stakeholders.

In-depth presentations during the morning outlined the current state of 
the National Health Service (SSN) and the dystopian future that awaits 
us in the very near future unless we succeed in building a broad, mass 
opposition to the dismantling of healthcare. The role of digitalization 
in the NHS, the negative consequences for providers and users, 
telemedicine, and the serious risks of virtualized care were among the 
topics addressed by the committees participating in the first part of 
the conference. There has been talk of virtual hospitals, without beds, 
with clinics where professionals operate remotely via monitors, as in 
the pilot site planned in Viareggio. Telemedicine, televisits, 
teleconsultations: even the emergency medical service will be replaced 
by operations centers. There has been talk of the construction of new 
hospitals, bringing further devastation to the local area, as in 
Livorno, where a functioning hospital will be replaced by a newly 
designed and built one, with significant environmental impact. 
Reductions or closures of healthcare facilities in the suburbs have been 
discussed, as in the case of Mugello, where, as in other places, the 
battle against the reduction of healthcare services has intertwined with 
environmental concerns.

On the union front, there has been talk of a hiring freeze from open 
recruitment lists (around 70,000 nurses and 6,000 doctors are missing), 
the fight against privatization, and the battle for equal pay between 
NHS workers and those employed by contractors. Other interventions 
addressed the issue of bureaucratization and the increasing surveillance 
of healthcare workers through operational platforms. The demands of 
those living with disabilities and the offensive inadequacy of 
compensation for caregivers were also highlighted. The approach to 
mental illness was discussed, where the National Health Service (NHS) 
prioritizes chemistry over listening, with prescriptions for very young 
people doubling in eight years.

The arms race and militarization of territories and railway 
infrastructure have been the subject of interventions that bring the 
possibility of conflict in Europe to the realm of possibility. Following 
France and Germany, the Italian National Health Service (NHS) is also 
being called upon to prepare for the management of large-scale health 
emergencies, in anticipation of hypothetical scenarios of widespread war 
in Europe, including CRBN (chemical, radiological, biological, and 
nuclear) events.

What has been outlined is the picture of a very serious and 
ever-worsening situation, which will overwhelm our lives in the absence 
of conscious and mass opposition.

The conference aimed to build this opposition, strengthen and expand 
contacts with grassroots groups active in the local areas, and transform 
the knowledge gained into targeted campaigns and actions. The next step 
is a general assembly in preparation for a regional demonstration. To 
this end, it is important to build connections and a common path across 
movement circles of diverse origins and inspirations, often sectoral, 
from antimilitarism to environmental or housing struggles.

The Regional Health, Environment, and Healthcare Coordination program 
has elements that make it interesting, especially its commitment to 
building a network of organizations and struggles active in diverse 
fields, all built from the bottom up. It's a process pursued with a 
unified and class-based spirit, with a sense of urgency to make an 
impact and stop the catastrophe. An experience worth following with 
interest.

Nadia Livorno

https://umanitanova.org/dalla-privatizzazione-alleconomia-di-guerra-coordinamento-toscano-salute-ambiente-sanita/
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