Italian village forbids residents from becoming ill

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

People living in Belcastro “are … ordered to avoid contracting any illness that may require emergency medical assistance,” a decree from local Mayor Antonio Torchia states.

Belcastro sits in the southern region of Calabria – one of Italy’s poorest.

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

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

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

The village’s on-call doctor surgery is also only open sporadically and offers no cover during weekends, holidays or after hours.

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

As part of the decree, residents have also been ordered “not to engage in behaviours that may be harmful and to avoid domestic accidents”, and “not to leave the house too often, travel or practise sports, and to [instead] rest for the majority 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 country’s poorest.

Political mismanagement and mafia interference have decimated its healthcare system, which was put under special administration from the central government almost 15 years ago.

Rome-appointed commissioners have had difficulties tackling the vast levels of debt faced by hospitals, meaning Calabrians remain crippled by a serious lack of medical personnel and beds, as well as interminable waiting lists.

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

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

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

Belcastro residents told local media that Mayor Torchia had “done the right thing in shining a light on the issue”, and that the decision would “shake consciences”.

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