When the picturesque hilltop town of Mussomeli, in the rugged heart of Sicily, started offering abandoned homes for €1 in an attempt to breathe new life into a community grappling with a dwindling population, Erica Moscatello felt an immediate pull to the project.
Moscatello, an Argentinian woman and a distant relative of the guerrilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara, made the daring choice early in 2021 to uproot her life from Tuscany and relocate with her family to the town of 10,000 people.
“I was thrilled,” she said. “The people were friendly and welcoming. It felt like living a dream.”
But Moscatello’s initial excitement was hit hard when her son required urgent medical attention. She discovered the local hospital was struggling – the paediatric ward had just shuttered its doors, with the gynaecology and surgery departments following soon after – and, like many hospitals in southern Italy, it was on the verge of collapse.
Determined to stop a healthcare crisis in her new home, Moscatello embarked on a bold mission. She contacted an old friend, who was the rector at the University of Rosario in Argentina, asking whether medical professionals in the South American country would consider starting a new life in Sicily, bringing their experience and expertise and, just maybe, saving the threadbare healthcare system in the process.
“In just a matter of days, we received an overwhelming 5,000 applications,” said Moscatello, who now works as an ambassador for the Italian confederation of small and medium businesses.
Working with the local authorities, the field of applicants was whittled down to an initial batch of nine candidates, but ultimately scores of Argentinian doctors responded to the call, fleeing the economic turmoil at home as inflation hit triple figures for a fresh start. In their new homes they were hailed as heroes for helping to keep open medical facilities that would otherwise have been doomed.
“After the positive experience in Mussomeli, we have continued to receive hundreds of requests from other hospitals,” said Moscatello.
“Currently, around 99 Argentine doctors are in Sicily. More will come in the coming months.”
She said members of the medical teams for the footballers Lionel Messi and the late Diego Maradona had also expressed an interest in coming to work in Italy.
Alejandro Mario Bertolotti was head of the cardiac and transplant department at Hospital Universitario Fundación Favaloro in Buenos Aires when he read about the scheme in a WhatsApp group chat with former colleagues. It came at a time when his family were exhausted by Argentina’s recurrent economic crises.
“We have struggled so much to overcome them,” he said. “I felt the urge for a change of scenery. After discussing it with my wife ...