Covid-19 Hit Hardest Where Financial Crisis Led to Health-Care Cuts

Claudio Zanon has seen firsthand how less spending on health care in recent years left Italy exposed when the coronavirus began sweeping through his country early last year. Dr. Zanon, who until the end of December was the medical director at a hospital in Como in Italy’s hard-hit Lombardy region, says when the pandemic arrived he didn’t have enough doctors and nurses. Intensive-care unit beds were scarce and there wasn’t a large network of local clinics to help take the strain. With money tight, technology used in the hospital had also fallen behind. “Italy was unprepared when the first coronavirus wave hit because the health-care system hasn’t received adequate funding in recent years,” said Dr. Zanon, who practiced as a surgeon for three decades. “If investments don’t keep up, you will inevitably see the negative results at a certain point.”