MESSINA (ITALPRESS) – “The main objective of the National Health Equity Programme is to respond to the health needs of the population in condition of socio-economic vulnerability, counteracting health poverty and eliminating access barriers to care through the opening of proximity clinics. We want to promote access to care by distributing drugs free of charge, ensuring dental benefits and, where necessary, dental prostheses. All this has been started, in the first months of activity, also from the Asp of Messina now we will take care of all this with motorhomes”. To emphasize it is Alfina Rossitto, responsible for the implementation of the PNES, line “Contrasting health poverty”, during the conference “For a fair and inclusive health. Participated paths of community health promotion”, held in the magna court of the University of Messina. After the institutional greetings of the director Giovanna Spatari and the general director of the Asp of Messina, Giuseppe Cuccì, Marco Maccari, head of the Intermediate Organism, the National Institute for the promotion of the health of migrant populations and for the contrast of poverty diseases (INMP), which offered a national framework of the project. “In this context – Maccari added – the Ministry of Health plays a key role in the articulation and promotion of these initiatives, providing the necessary support to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the actions undertaken. Only by collaborating at all levels, we can build a more equitable and inclusive healthcare system that can address the challenges of health poverty. I reaffirm the importance of PNES and synergy with the Ministry, which is essential to address and resolve the health issues of vulnerable populations.” Subsequently, Patrizia Restuccia, social worker and project Rup, highlighted how “the proximity clinics are now a reality in the territory of the Asp of Messina, a fundamental service aimed at ensuring and facilitating access to medical care for people in extreme poverty. Initially active in the districts of Messina, Milazzo and Mistretta, the opening was also planned in the districts of Barcelona P.G. and S. Agata di Militello. Over the course of the year 2025, more than 550 patients were granted medical care, with a total of 1,470 benefits provided. At present we aim to strengthen the presence of ambulancemen also in the jonica riviera and in the Patti district. The construction of integrated networks, continuous dialogue and synergies with all institutional realities, with institutions, associations and the community as a whole proved to be a winning card.” Of particular importance is also the contribution of Antonella Casablanca, social assistant and project Rup, who explained how “co-projection is a participatory work tool that involved public bodies and third sector bodies in their different forms (social cooperatives, voluntary associations, social promotion associations, etc.). The third sector bodies, in fact, have provided support, technical and organizational skills, human and material resources. An innovative figure was then that of the community leader: they are the referents of the most representative migrant communities – cingalese, Islamic and Srilankese – with the task of identifying needs, facilitating access to health services, collaborating with territorial networks and promoting active participation.” In the course of the initiative the first motorhomes were presented to the community, which in a few weeks will enter into operation, and will allow to reach the most difficult places to serve. Sunday Cambria remarked that “they represent a free access door to care for those who cannot afford performance for saluyou or has difficulty in reaching health facilities. It is the health service that moves towards the most fragile citizens, people who often have a dual fragility, social and health. It is not only a medical camper, but a tool of equity, because it allows the health to arrive also to those who live a socio-economic vulnerability or has stopped caring for economic and logistic reasons”. With regard to the use of motorhomes, General Manager Giuseppe Cuccì, together with Managing Director Giancarlo Niutta and Sanitario Director Giuseppe Ranieri Trimarchi, said: “The introduction of motorhomes is a fundamental step in bringing health services closer to the most isolated communities. These vehicles will provide direct medical services in places where vulnerable people live, thus ensuring fair access to care. With this project we want to ensure that no one is left behind and that everyone can benefit from quality health care” Finally, Francesca Lo Iacono, social assistant and project Rup, exalted the role of dental clinics recalling that “there are a lighthouse on a reality too often left in the shadow: the health odontoiatric poverty. There is a form of deep and silent indigence that hides behind a daily and dramatic gesture: to put a hand in front of the mouth for the shame of smiling. It is a poverty that we see, one of the few medical conditions that directly affect the image we give ourselves to the world.” The meeting also attended the administrative representative of the Asp for the PNES, Valeria Caputo, two other project Rups Giancarlo Quattrone and Chiara Schirò, several representatives of the proximity clinics and the dental laboratory of Messina, the Municipality of Milazzo, Cesv and Caritas Diocesana.
– photo press office Asp Messina –(ITALPRESS).
