The Italian country forbids residents from getting sick

A small Italian village has banned its residents from seriously ill.

People living in Belcastro “are … ordered to avoid contracting any disease that may require emergency medical assistance”, a decree of the local mayor Antonio Torchia says.

Belcastro is located in the southern region of Calabria – one of the poorest in Italy.

Torchia said the move was “obviously a humorous provocation”, but that it had more effect than the urgent notices he had sent to the regional authority to highlight the shortcomings of the local health system.

About half of Belcastro’s 1,200 residents are over 65 and the nearest Accident & Emergency (A&E) department is more than 45 km (28 miles) away, the mayor said.

He added that the A&E was only accessible from a road with a speed limit of 30kmh (18mph).

The village doctor’s surgery is also only open sporadically and does not offer cover during weekends, holidays or after hours.

Torchia told Italian TV that it was difficult to “feel safe when you know that if you need assistance, your only hope is to get to (A&E) on time” – and that the roads were almost “more of a risk than any disease.”

As part of the decree, residents are also ordered “not to engage in behaviors that can be harmful and to avoid domestic accidents”, and “not to leave the house too often, travel or practice sports, and (instead) rest for the most part part of the time.”

It is unclear how these new rules will be enforced, if at all.

The sparsely populated region of Calabria – the tip of Italy’s boot – is one of the poorest in the country.

Political mismanagement and mafia interference have decimated its health system, which was placed under special administration by the central government almost 15 years ago.

Rome-appointed commissioners have struggled to tackle the vast levels of debt faced by hospitals, meaning Calabrians remain crippled by a serious shortage of medical staff and beds, as well as endless waiting lists.

Eighteen of the region’s hospitals have closed since 2009.

As a result, almost half of Calabria’s nearly two million residents seek medical care outside the region.

In 2022, it was announced that Cuba will send 497 doctors to the Italian region in three years to work in various medical facilities. The regional governor Roberto Occhiuto said last year that these doctors had “saved” the hospitals of Calabria.

The inhabitants of Belcastro told the local media that the mayor Torchia had “done the right thing to shed light on the issue”, and that the decision will “find the conscience”.

“He used a provocative decree to draw attention to a serious problem,” said one man.