PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – “While a judicial inquiry, still in the initial phase, it concerns some subjects operating in various sectors, SAMO ETS reaffirms full confidence in the judiciary”. This is what we read in a note that brings the signature of Ermanno Zancla, Vice President Samo ETS that adds: “Responsibility, if there are, will be ascertained in its own premises. That is why two floors must be kept separate. On the one hand, the investigation. On the other hand, palliative care: hundreds of operators who daily, with dedication, abnegation and humanity, accompany the terminally ill and their families in the most fragile and quieter hours of existence. An investigation still in the initial state does not affect this commitment in any way, and no one can use it to question it.” The palliative care continues the note, “are not a service like others. They concern the dignity of the person and the estate of entire families. They call for time, listening, continuity, a relationship of trust that is not bought and is not measured with market indices. That is why I am a law-recognized right and presided over by the Constitution. And that is why it concerns the direction of the decree of the Sicilian Region (D.A. n.588/2025), which prefigures an “open system” inspired by the “great competition”. One would like to bring back to market logic a service that concerns the end of life, without considering the specificity of the needs of terminal patients and their loved ones. No European directive imposes this.” The European discipline of services in the internal market continues the note, “excludes health services expressly. The Union looks to this land with caution and leaves the States free to organize it according to solidarity. The Court of Justice of the European Union, in the ASADE judgment of 2022, has written it clearly: it is fully compatible with European law a system that reserves to non-profit institutions the services of assistance to the person, as long as transparent and oriented to the social end. If this applies to assistance in general, it is worth more reason for palliative care.” Italy has also chosen this path. The Constitutional Court recognised in third-sector bodies a shared administration channel “alternative to profit and market”; the State Council noted that the discipline moves towards wide spaces subtracted to competition logic; the legislator translated all this into the new Code of Public Contracts. The same national reform of health competition is now suspended, and Parliament’s indications go towards welfare continuity. The Sicilian decree therefore moves in counter-tendence: compared to Europe, compared to the Constitution, compared to the State.There is then a figure that should make more than any legal argument reflect. palliative care is still underutilized: the Constitutional Court has denounced the serious shortcomings of the networks and the problem, today, is that too many patients do not accept you, not that there are competitors. The network exists, has still to express and does not work fully. The priority is to grow, reach those who are excluded today, not open the sector to those who think in terms of margin. A race on the price would not bring only one extra sick person, but would jeopardize the continuity of those who already care. The risk is concrete: in a comparison dominated by costs, the entities investing in qualified personnel and in relation to care would be penalized compared to large groups capable of aggressive offers. To pay the price would be the quality, the presence on the territory and the known face that accompanies a family until the last day. SAMO ETS does not request privileges. It calls for strict rules, transparency and full controls, and proposes a quality-based accreditation, also measured through the experience reported by patients and families. It is the way indicated byshort and the legislator, and it is the only one that protects them together legality and dignity. palliative care is not a commodity: they are the highest proof of how much a community can take care of its sick.” -photo press office Samo Ets –(ITALPRESS).
