The Porta Sud health centre, billed as a one-stop clinic for residents of eastern Naples, began taking patients on 22 September with 1,684 bookings missing or duplicated, according to figures released by the regional health office on Wednesday. Patients who had waited weeks for appointments found locked online records, cancelled slots and, in some cases, no clinician listed for their visit.
The office said 4,260 people had tried to use the new booking portal during its first day. Of those, 1,684 were affected by an error in the transfer of appointment data from older clinics, while 312 people were directed to the wrong department. Officials said no one had been left without urgent treatment, but offered no count of how many visits had to be rescheduled.
Regional health chief Dario Valcero praised the opening at a morning press conference, calling the centre “the fastest route from waiting room to treatment in southern Italy”. He said the service would be stable by Friday, then accused critics of “selling panic before they have read a single number”. Doctors’ representatives said that response had turned a technical failure into a public row.
Patients meet empty rooms
Zelma Goodwin, 58, arrived at 08:10 for a diabetes check after receiving a text confirmation the night before. Staff at the entrance could not find her appointment on their screens and handed her a paper slip for a return visit next month. “They opened the doors on time; the care was nowhere inside,” she said, sitting on a low wall outside the building.
Lorenzo Acosta, a family doctor who worked at the centre on its opening day, said 11 of 26 scheduled consultations could not go ahead because patient records had not arrived. “We had rooms, equipment and people waiting, but the system could not tell us who was due in,” he said. Several colleagues used handwritten lists to direct patients to blood tests and basic checks.
The clinic was designed to bring family doctors, nurses, diagnostic services and referrals under one roof, reducing the need for residents to travel across the city. But staff said some appointment confirmations still pointed patients to the old locations, while two of the centre’s six diagnostic rooms remained unused on Tuesday. The regional office said those rooms were waiting for routine calibration, not repairs.
They opened the doors on time; the care was nowhere inside.
Zelma Goodwin, patient
Officials blame the transfer
Ibrahim Chaudhary, a representative of a regional doctors’ association, said the opening had been announced before the patient lists were checked. He called for the office to publish daily figures on missed appointments and warned that clinicians could not be expected to “patch a broken timetable with scraps of paper”. The office said its technical team was working with clinic staff to reconcile records.
The centre’s €18 million cost includes renovations to a former municipal building and new diagnostic equipment, according to the project’s published budget summary. Naples has faced long waits for routine appointments, and officials presented Porta Sud as a test of whether expanded neighbourhood clinics could ease pressure on larger hospitals. The opening-day figures have now put that promise under scrutiny.
The regional office said patients whose bookings vanished would receive new appointment dates by 30 September, with priority given to people needing follow-up care. It has paused new bookings through the portal while staff check the transferred records, though telephone appointments remain available. Valcero said he would visit again next week; doctors said they would judge the centre by whether patients could get through its doors and into care.
