AMATRICE -- A sum of 2 million euros reportedly allocated to the consolidation of the hospital building in this central Italian town destroyed by the recent earthquake was never used, Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper said on Thursday.

  The case is not an uncommon one, however, and according to statistics taken 2013 around 60 percent of Italian structures would also crumble if faced with earthquakes of a similar intensity to the recent one in Amatrice. 

 In 2012 and 2014, government officials even considered closing the hospital, but it remained over after protests made by the town’s mayor Sergio Pirozzi.

 “If the attitude to everywhere outside the capital is like this, there’s no point in staying here,” Pirozzi said during an argument with President of Lazio Nicola Zingaretti, before adding that the hospital was known to be “in a zone 1 (high danger) seismic area,” and that the nearest hospital was “only 70km away.”

 An anonymous source told ‘Il Fatto Quotidiano’: “We’re talking about an old structure that’s always been treated in an off-handed way, partly for political reasons. After the Aquila earthquake, two millions euros were set aside for Amatrice’s hospital, even though it did not show significant signs of damage. Over seven years have elapsed, and still nothing has been done. Maybe someone was waiting for a disaster like this so they could close it down for good."

 The source adds: “Since 2014, the hospital in Amatrice has been considered one ‘in a disadvantaged area’, given how its catchment area contains 13,000 people and spans all across the Alto Velino valley.”

 In the meantime, the 15 people originally taken to Amatrice’s hospital following the earthquake have been transferred to Rieti. 

lej