As the number of cases of COVID-19 rises again in Lombardy and in Italy in general, the hospital of Carate Brianza is prepared to face a new wave of the epidemic. Doctors with Africa CUAMM has provided the health facility with new equipment to ensure the safety of health workers and people accessing the hospital through the emergency room: over 25,000 patients only in 2020. The donation has been funded by the U.S. Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the framework of CUAMM’s project “Italian Response to Covid-19” (IRC-19).
Last January, eight gazebos were provided, to be used as frontline reception spaces, allowing health staff to screen suspected cases of COVID-19 outside the hospital, improving the flow of the patients and avoiding overcrowding in the facility. Also eleven new stretchers have been made available since November 2020, while screens have been ensuring more privacy and smarter use of the spaces. Thirty dispensers of hand sanitizer have been distributed around the hospital, to guarantee high standards of hygiene.
Today Doctors with Africa CUAMM officially delivered the new equipment to the management of the hospital. Marco Trivelli, General Director of ASST Brianza, attended to the ceremony, together with Ezio Goggi, Medical Director of the area, Davide Moro, doctor from the hospital of Carate Brianza, and Andrea Atzori and Veronica Censi from Doctors with Africa CUAMM.
Marco Trivelli, General Director from ASST Brianza, stated, “We thank Doctors with Africa Cuamm for their support to the hospital of Carate Brianza, especially over the last two years. Their contribution is particularly important today, as our health system is under pressure for a new emergency, considering the frightening increase of cases of COVID-19. Today I would like to acknowledge the work of Davide Moro in strengthening the collaboration between our hospital and Doctors with Africa CUAMM, and the commitment of our anaesthetist Mauro Brighenti in several missions of Doctors with Africa CUAMM.”
Andrea Atzori, Chief of Party of Doctors with Africa CUAMM’s IRC-19, stated, “Our project aims to create more resilient healthcare facilities and communities and to provide training for health workers broadly across Italy. As CUAMM we already supported the Hospital of Carate Brianza last year, during the first peak of the pandemic, providing PPE and a ventilator. We wanted to share the know-how developed in many years of work in epidemics in Africa: our experience in the field shows that to be sustainable, each intervention has to be developed in accordance with local counterparts. Even this time we are responding to specific requests coming from the hospital and we are glad to help them thanks to the U.S. Government, which through USAID is supporting a number of initiatives in Italy, aiming at reducing the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.”
USAID, which funds IRC19, is the U.S. Government’s premiere development organization operating in more than 100 countries worldwide.
This press release is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Doctors with Africa CUAMM, recipient of the Fixed Amount Award (FAA) No. 7200AA20FA00013 and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
