Public health doc shows up a month late

(ANSA) - Lecce, October 24 - Public health advocates in the southern Puglia region said Friday that a 75-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer died after public health authorities took a month to schedule him a home visit.
    The patient's GP had prescribed an emergency home visit by a geriatric specialist after the old man's condition precipitated suddenly.
    But local public health employees rejected the GP's request, telling the patient's wife to file a request for a normal visit instead.
    A doctor would come within a week, the employees told her.
    Instead he showed up 33 days later, when the patient had already died.