The doctors who provide free healthcare will all be volunteers and the patients won’t have to pay any prescription charges: the clinic the Order of Malta has recently inaugurated in Sanremo (Imperia) is similar to that already operating in Genoa ‘reserved for needy people and families without welfare assistance’. Both represent a comparatively unusual situation in Italy.

This service is offered to immigrants and all those who are unable to register with the local health authority, placing their health and that of their families at risk. It has been discovered that some of those waiting for residence permits or who cannot make use of the local health authority’s services have tuberculosis. It was thought that this infectious disease had been eradicated in Italy, but it is once again threatening the population and children in particular.

This initiative is promoted by the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors and the Order of Malta. The local health authority of Imperia has guaranteed to provide the necessary medical supplies.