The goal is to restore and revitalize the historic Capitoline hospital on the Tiber Island. The Fatebenefratelli for years he had been experiencing serious economic and managerial problems which brought him to the brink of bankruptcy. And after various twists and turns, the Bellunese entrepreneur was finally founded Leonardo DelVecchio, leading shareholder of Mediobanca and Generali, together with that for the Catholic health care - established by Pope Francis - have given life to a new joint venture for Sanità Isola Tiberina which will be able to count on "all the financial and professional resources", and on the industrial partnership of the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation.
The objective of the new agreement of the non-profit social enterprise is a recovery plan of the general house of the Fatebenefratelli, with the extinction of the arrangement and debts with banks, suppliers and the Province of Rome.
But let's take a step back. With two financial statements showing a loss (2011 and 2012) for 270 million of consolidated debts, in 2015 the Roman hospital managed by the Hospitaller Order of San Giovanni di Dio was admitted by the Court of Rome to the composition with creditors procedure on a going concern basis, waiting for a buyer to be willing to rehabilitate and revitalize the hospital.
Wages cut, staff reduced to the bone and services increasingly at risk. It seemed that the crisis was impossible to heal for the ancient hospital on the Tiber Island owned by the Vatican, considered one of the poles of excellence especially for motherhood and the management of pandemics (such as the plague in 1656 and cholera in 1832) .
The news had appealed to the San Donato Group which was pursuing a consolidation strategy at a national level. The health company that refers to the Rotelli family had come forward and presented an offer to take over the historic Capitoline hospital (there was talk of around 200 million euros) aimed at the rehabilitation and revitalization of the health facility, as had happened in 2012 with the rescue of the Irccs San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.
The operation seemed to be in its final stages. As long as the words in light and dark of Papa Francesco they did not rekindle the possibility that the deal fell through instead. “Even in the Church – said the Holy Father while he was hospitalized in Gemelli for surgery last July – it sometimes happens that some health institution is not doing well economically due to bad management. The first thought that comes to you is to sell it. But your vocation as a Church is not to have money, it is to do service and always free service. Don't forget: save the free institutions”.
According to internal reconstructions, the Vatican would therefore have blocked the sale without, however, foreshadowing a financial solution to the hospital crisis. The coffers were empty and the concrete risk of not honoring the last installment envisaged by the arrangement with creditors for last October 15 (later extended for another six weeks) seemed inevitably to open the doors to bankruptcy.
And instead the agreement between the foundations opens a new chapter for the ancient Roman structure which finally, after years of crisis, will be able to once again represent an excellence in the Italian healthcare scene.
