A mobile clinic serving 1,284 households displaced by spring floods in the Ravenna area must remain open, a regional tribunal ruled on Wednesday, halting a closure scheduled for Friday. On Thursday, the Romagna Care Authority said it would also extend appointments until 22:00, giving residents time to see a nurse after work and making the temporary service more useful than ever.
The clinic, set up in a converted medical van beside Lugo’s civic health centre, has recorded 2,940 visits since June. Its nurses treat minor infections, renew routine prescriptions and help patients reconnect with their usual doctors after evacuation scattered families across temporary flats and relatives’ homes.
A van that became a clinic
The authority had planned to wind down the service as homes reopened and residents returned to villages along the Lamone River. But Martina Takács-Török, a family doctor who coordinates the clinic, said some people were still living 14 km (9 miles) from their former GP, while others had lost transport or struggled to transfer medical records.
“We thought we were opening a door for a few weeks; people have made it part of their ordinary care,” Takács-Török said. “Now someone can collect a prescription, ask about blood pressure and be home in time to cook dinner.” The clinic’s waiting area is a pair of chairs under an awning, where a paper number system keeps the queue moving.
We thought we were opening a door for a few weeks; people have made it part of their ordinary care.
Martina Takács-Török, clinic coordinator
The Bologna Regional Review Tribunal granted an urgent request from a local patients’ association, finding that the authority’s flood-recovery plan promised continuous primary care until residents could use their regular services again. The ruling is temporary, pending a fuller hearing on 18 November, but it prevents the clinic from being shut down in the meantime.
More appointments after dark
Health officials say the extended hours will begin next week, with two nurses on site until 22:00 on weekdays. The authority has set aside €520,000 (about $610,000) for the van, staff and prescription support through March; the tribunal did not order that sum, but officials say the decision makes the planned service easier to justify.
Sébastien Monnier, the authority’s regional care director, said the ruling changed the timetable, not the goal of returning patients to permanent clinics. “We can do both: reopen local services and keep a bridge in place for people who are not ready to cross it yet,” he said. A second weekly stop is being considered for hamlets east of Lugo.
For Panna Bakos, who has used the van to refill a blood-pressure prescription while staying with her sister, the later appointments solve a practical problem. “My sister works until six, and I don’t drive,” she said. “This means I can go after supper instead of asking somebody to miss a shift.”
The authority will publish the new timetable at the civic health centre and send it to households still listed in the relocation register. At the November hearing, judges are expected to consider whether the service should continue through the winter; for now, residents have a little more time, a later appointment and one less trip to organise.
