A wave of deaths in Sicilian hospitals has highlighted a crisis in the island's health service, which has been linked by a senior politician to draining of public funds by the Mafia.
Three suspicious deaths of patients in three days over the Christmas holiday have raised alarm. A 78-year-old woman died of a heart attack in a Palermo emergency ward on Dec. 28 after waiting four hours to be seen. The ward has no triage system for prioritizing patients.
Earlier, a pregnant woman delivered a stillborn child after doctors declined chose not to carry out a caesarean section.
In another case, the parents of a newborn who died in hospital have accused doctors of malpractice.
"Cosa Nostra is investing heavily in private health centers in Sicily, which are subsidized by the state," said Francesco Forgione, the head of Italy's parliamentary anti-Mafia commission.
After drug trafficking, the control of public and private contracting is the second most lucrative activity for organized crime in Italy, amounting to about 17.5 billion euros (US$23.1 billion), of which the Sicilian Mafia is thought to be responsible for 6.5 billion euros.
Sicily has about 1,800 private health centers compared with 150 in the rich northern region of Lombardy, Forgione said.
Such clinics offer subsidized services in order to reduce the workload for public hospitals.
"But that has diverted funds from public hospitals, which are falling into a state of disrepair," he said.
"Sicily is the first region in Italy for the financing of private health centers and the first for patient deaths," he said.
Forgione, who was appointed to head the anti-Mafia commission by the center-left government of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, has said that investigating mafia penetration of the health business will be a priority in Sicily and Calabria.
In Sicily, the Mafia is not only investing in private clinics, but is also involved in steering public health contracts towards friendly companies, Forgione said.
"During the hunt for mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano, it was even discovered that some Palermo neighborhood bosses were doctors or lawyers, part of a new Mafia bourgeoisie," Forgione said.
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