INAIL

Posted on 2008/05/09 18:07:36 (May 2008).

[Friday 9th May 2008]

INAIL stands for "Istituto Nazionale per l'assicurazione contro gli infortuni sul lavoro", which means "National Insurance Institute against Work-related Injuries".

Today I had to go there because of the new knee problem that I have, as I got injured while working and therefore it was a work-related issue.

Entering INAIL building in Florence, but I guess everywhere around Italy, it's like entering into a dream.
The buildings are really old, they reek of old, they look old, the paintings are old, the flooring is old, the colour of doors and paint is old. It's like going back to the 70's.

In Pizzaland these places are commonly referred to as "Palaces of Sleep", i.e. sleep is the king in the halls and corridors of these offices. I will not venture into one of the greatest problems that afflict Italy (public servants), but my brief experience of today simply strengthened my beliefs.

I arrived at 9.00, at the entrance I could find an automatic dispenser of paper numbers, needed to queue properly to be registered for the visit.
After a short wait I got in, explaining to the nurse that I was there because I wanted to shorten the period of illness that I was given at the hospital.
She looked at me as if I told her that I wanted to rip her heart off with a spoon... I think it took a good five minutes to explain that I wanted to go back to work even with crutches!
After she recovered from the shock she told me that I was not in the system and I had to go on the second floor to be added to the database (WHY!?!?!?)....

On the second floor I arrived through the staff lift, which opened onto a corridor that could be easily defined as my representation of hell.
Green linoleum flooring, a lot of rooms full of "stuff", desks, computers, most of them empty (i.e. with no workers inside), there must have been 20 rooms with to people working, and maybe 1 or 2 with some staff.
A dim light coming through the dirty windows, an environment that is so "behind" that it looks as if you had a Quantum Leap to the 60's!

I was greeted by a blind dwarf (yes a BLIND DWARF), well actually not much of a dwarf, but a man that could not see very well, and was quite short. A typical dweller of these halls, and he told me that I had to wait for the "lady that shouts"...

The system to be added to the database is somewhat crazy... Basically I had to wait half an hour for a woman to open a door and shout in the corridor if there was someone that "needs to be put in"... as if it was a secret word! Some people there waiting with me lined up and after another half an hour we were in the mighty database of INAIL (apparently the computer system crashed and therefore they were a bit slow, in truth it was 10 which means coffee break for public servants in Pizzaland).

I thought that I was living in a dream, or better a nightmare!

So it was time to go back down, where I had to wait for another hour and then I was visited by the doctor who basically did not tell me nothing more that I did not know already... One thing was quite disappointing, since INAIL has go no funds from the government, even if they are an insurance institution, I could not get the MRI that I need for free... Wow a great insurance that is!

Before leaving the final act of a day that needs to be remembered... The medic told me that it was ok to go back to work on Monday (despite me having sick days until Wednesday), and when he signed the papers told the nurse "he's a good one!" all jolly and chirpy. Apparently 99% f the people there begs for more days faking strange symptoms, so I was a bit of a novelty to them (although they tried to talk me out of going to work earlier).

So I ask myself... WHY THE HELL DO I PAY TAXES TO KEEP THESE PEOPLE WHO DO NOTHING EVERY DAY and when I need the support they refuse it?!?

Oh well, I'd better not get started...

Thats just crazy, is it just that you have a job, presumably they would pay insurance if you were unemployed and or on benefits?

Posted by Kev at 2008/05/09 18:56:22.

Despite the appalling problems of dealing with INAIL - which you wrote about brilliantly! - I find it amazing that no one actually seems to want you to go back to work! Around here, if you are vaguely upright, you are expected to man your post!

Posted by Nigel at 2008/05/09 19:06:17.

Nigel: I have added the bit when they ACTUALLY TRIED to talk me out of going back earlier and then commended me with praises for that...

Kev: Yes we have some sort of unemployed benefit but I think that you must have no arm and no legs to apply for it (and then they might refuse it)... :D

Posted by Lox at 2008/05/09 19:13:54.

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