Italian mayor bans villagers from getting sick amid health care shortage
Struggling to cope with a lack of medical access, an Italian mayor has ordered a town's residents not to get sick.
Mayor Antonio Torchia issued a decree that people in Belcastro are "ordered to avoid contracting any illness that may require emergency medical assistance".
He also ordered residents "not to engage in behaviours that may be harmful and to avoid domestic accidents" and to "not to leave the house too often, travel or practise sports".
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Belcastro is a long way from the nearest hospital and has a rapidly ageing population. Facebook
The ban has made national news in Italy, forcing Torchia to concede that he doesn't have the authority for his decree.
But his "humorous provocation" was to draw attention to the issues facing the village.
Belcastro is 45km away from the nearest emergency room, only reachable by a road with a 30km/h speed limit.
And the only doctor in town does not work after hours or on weekends.
Torchia hoped his decree would prompt the regional authorities in Calabria, in Italy's south, to put more funding into health care.
The BBC reports about half of Belcastro's 1200 residents are over the age of 65.
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