AICARM at the licensing guidelines table
di Valerio Pelini, Vice President of AICARM
Our President has already given the news in his editorial. Great news, no doubt about it. Because the problem is serious and concerns thousands of people, often in radically different clinical conditions, forced, every year, to follow an incredible way of the cross to inevitably end up in front of the president of the special driving license commission of the place where the unfortunate people live.
It happened to me personally: for three years I have had to go every 12 months to a place that housed the psychiatric hospital of San Salvi (perhaps not by chance) and after having done the tour of various Dante's circles (where there are those who look at the administrative documentation, who takes medical documentation into their hands, and so on) I found myself in front of the Minos on duty who, unlike Dante's character, always wraps his tail in the same way: ok, I'll renew your license, but only for one year. And thank God too, if you believe it.
There is no point in trying to say that your defibrillator was implanted for primary prevention, that the pathology is stabilized, as is written in the medical documentation drawn up by the highly authoritative Prof. Cecchi. Or that my device never worked (by the way, horns and bicorns), or that traffic accidents caused by pacemakers and defibrillators are statistically irrelevant. Nothing, spades. Minos says one year and invokes old and inadequate guidelines.
Precisely those censored in the Senate agenda, which are not included in the list of national guidelines of the Higher Institute of Health (the only ones that count), as AICARM has ascertained.
The Senate's agenda paves the way to finally arrive at this result: national guidelines, valid from the Alps to Sicily, to paraphrase Manzoni, and which provide for a different evaluation of the different clinical situations of patients. At the table that the government will have to open, we at AICARM will be there: to represent the reasons of science and the rights of our patients. Through “Hearts listening” I personally spoke with dozens of them. All with the same problem. And everyone, rightly, very angry because of the costs, the uncertainties and, let me tell you, the lack of clarity and transparency that surrounds the whole issue of renewing driving permits.
In any case, this result underlines the crucial importance of the work carried out by AICARM. Our Association has always stood out for its attention to the concrete needs of patients with cardiomyopathy, and the defense of their rights is one of our primary objectives. The success of the motion in the Senate demonstrates that when we unite our voices, we can positively influence policies that directly affect us. AICARM will continue to work tirelessly, pursuing patients' requests in every institutional setting. Our commitment is to ensure that people with cardiomyopathy can live full lives, without unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles. We invite all patients and their families to actively participate in the life of the Association. Only in this way can we continue to be a driving force for change, facing future challenges with determination and competence. For now, a big thank you to the Florentine senator Paolo Marcheschi who really took the matter seriously and to his parliamentary assistant Stefania Vivoli, always present, serious and reliable.
Now let's play the second half, let's all play it together.