Calabria health system under fire over patient disappearance and ambulance gaps

In Crotone, a 78‑year‑old patient with Parkinson's disease and dementia vanished from the geriatric ward of San Giovanni di Dio hospital and was found ten hours later in the facility’s basement. Local Democratic Party councilors criticized the incident as evidence of serious safety and staffing failures, noting that the hospital serves over 14,000 patients with only seven doctors.

Separately, regional Democratic Party councilor Ernesto Alecci denounced a shortage of ambulances across Calabria, claiming many vehicles purchased from Lombardy are unusable and that newly acquired ambulances frequently remain in workshops. The shortage has forced reliance on private ambulance services, increasing costs and highlighting organisational inefficiencies in the regional health system.