PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – A cutting-edge concept fusing technology, healthcare and the shipping industry: this is the vision of Poly-clinic techno boat (Pctb), a model of a polyclinic ship designed to meet global health needs, with a focus on the Mediterranean basin and the circum-African coastal strip.
Designed and equipped for maximum effectiveness in epidemic, pandemic and emergency operational scenarios, however, it is equally usable for humanitarian, educational and training support in the broadest sense. “I’m always very keen on both private individuals and professionals who have innovation and, above all, have an entrepreneurial spirit that can be useful to the public,” Erica Mazzetti, president of the parliamentary intergroup “Let’s redesign Italy,” explained to ITALPRESS. Public-private partnership in this health sector as well is fundamental. The idea that the entrepreneur had is brilliant, because today health care is in great crisis, not only in Italy, but we are already very advanced, we are an excellent country in health care, we all know that, but there is a shortage of doctors and important facilities, so here we have to work a lot on public-private partnership.”
“The idea of this ship is critical both for these more advanced places, but especially for the people most in crisis. We have countries in Africa or distant islands that have no medical facilities, and to have a ship that goes to the place and is able to treat people is an exceptional event. Among other things, in addition to this, health tourism can also be done, which is another national excellence that needs to be encouraged, so this can be a project done all in Italy, and specifically in Sicily, that in addition to providing jobs for those who will have to build it, it also creates a different governance of health care, also in terms of then operators who will have to be on the ships. It can also be an important incentive for young doctors who want to gain experience.”
The innovative project was presented during the “Navigating Health Care” event held at Villa Magnisi headquarters of the Palermo Medical Association. “We are involved as a training institution, because training that concerns health care at sea has its own specificity,” stressed Toti Amato, president Omceo Palermo. Personally, I have to say, having been a shipboard medical officer as well, I know a little bit of the subject, but the presence of the admiral inspector of health of the Navy and also other components of the navy make it clear that today assistance at sea, especially in times of major emergencies and even more as support to what are the fragile populations in coastal areas, has its own specificity and therefore training is needed.”
Leading the whole project is architect Claudio Paccanaro, president Medical Tourism Association: “This project was born during the Covid period. We got together specialists from the Naval Workshop in Palermo and engineers from Expert Health and came up with the idea of designing the first civilian hospital ship. There are many hospital ships, but military ones. This ship for example, if there were three of them, they would be required in war zones, then they are required at the time of natural disasters, epidemics, but still it can be a great vehicle to handle all of them and export Italian healthcare to the world. The ship could go around through the coasts of Africa and in each place deposit a mini hospital that in three months would be set up, which is an emergency room of excellence, and then it could continue to bring its help. Let’s say it was also designed to go up the Volga, to go up the Yellow River, so it could go to the most dispersed places, where there are no roads, where you get through by waterways.”
-Photo xd6/Italpress-.
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