Italians aged 80 or older with coronavirus will effectively be turned away by hospitals, should the pandemic in Italy reach a point that this becomes necessary. According to The Telegraph, a document prepared by a crisis management unit in Turin, the capital the Piedmont region that has been deeply affected, outlines the protocol for determining which patients will be eligible for intensive care if hospital space and resources are at a shortage. , and the country is preparing for the worst possible scenarios. The document reads: “The growth the current epidemic makes it likely that a point imbalance between the clinical needs patients with COVID-19 and the effective availability intensive resources will be reached. Should it become impossible to provide all patients with intensive care services, it will be necessary to apply criteria for access to intensive treatment, which depends on the limited resources available.”

Coronavirus Victims Over 80 In Italy Will Be Left To DieVittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty s

“The criteria set out guidelines if the situation becomes such an exceptional nature as to make the therapeutic choices on the individual case dependent on the availability resources, forcing hospitals] to focus on those cases in which the cost/benefit ratio is more favorable for clinical treatment,” it continues. “The criteria for access to intensive therapy in cases emergency must include age less than 80 or a score on the Charlson comorbidity Index which indicates how many other medical conditions the patient has] less than 5.”

Coronavirus Victims Over 80 In Italy Will Be Left To DieMarco Di Lauro/Getty s

“I never wanted to see such a moment,” Luigi Icardi, a councilor for health in Piedmont, admitted. “The document] will be binding and will establish in the event saturation the wards a precedence code for access to intensive care, based on certain parameters such as potential survival.” More than 1,000 people in Italy have already died from coronavirus, with the death toll rising daily.  “We want to arrive as late as possible at the point where we have to decide who lives and who dies,” said Roberto Testi, president the coranavirus technical-scientific committee for Piedmont. “The criteria relate only to access to intensive care – those who do not get access to intensive care will still receive all the treatment possible. In medicine we sometimes have to make difficult choices but it’s important to have a system about how to make them.”