Schillaci: “Training of family doctors becomes a specialization. Too many improper accesses to the emergency room. Now build a local network by enhancing GPs and pharmacies”

The Minister of Health is a guest of the Forum in Bruno Vespa’s Masseria. “Often a percentage well above half of the cases who go to the emergency room could probably do without it then it is clear that, having no other safe places to go, patients turn to the emergency room, so I believe that a proximity network must be built” . On Pnrr: “Health resources could have been greater”. And then on Aifa: “Leaner and less bureaucratic”.

09 JUN –

“Covid has amplified the shadow lights of the national health system. The lights are the health workers at all levels who demonstrated their great professionalism during the covid and the excellences are the hospitals where citizens find free treatment and this must be said and reiterated because it makes our nation unique if one considers the quality of care that there are in Italian hospitals compared to free I challenge anyone to find another country today where you have average care of this level compared to the free treatment itself. The shadows are essentially linked to the medicine of the territory which was already fragile and which the covid has highlighted even more “. This is what the Minister of Health said, Horace Schillaci guest of the Forum in Masseria di Bruno Vespa.

“There are funds from the Pnrr and a large part – specified the Minister – are intended precisely for local medicine. I believe that we need to completely reorganize Italian health care which today is based on two fundamental pillars which are family doctors and hospitals but between family doctors and hospitals there is no widespread network on the national territory and the the challenge is to build it with funds from the Plan”.

The Minister said that in order to “build it thus giving new treatment opportunities to patients who go to the emergency room because in fact it is the only place where today they find demand for their right treatment needs and as you well know like me in recent months more than I once repeated, sometimes even taking some criticism that often a percentage well above half of the cases that in the emergency room could probably do without it then it is clear that, having no other safe places to go, patients turn to the emergency room. I believe that for this reason we need to build a proximity network by re-evaluating the figure of the general practitioner and then I believe we also need to organize the pharmacies which have proved useful during the covid experience, for example, for vaccination, therefore amplifying and make it possible for pharmacies to provide services for the health of citizens”.

It is time for training in general medicine to become a specialisation. ”It is clear that the family doctor today also suffers from a drop in attractiveness if one considers that the number of places that are put up for competition for the training of family doctors is often not completely covered, so let’s say that from a certain point of view it is necessary retrain them through a training course that is different from what it currently is which is regionally based and not as long as graduate schools. So – he said – the first discussion I made with them among 1000 difficulties is to move towards a family medicine that is equated to a specialization school, this I believe would make it more attractive and would also give those who do it greater satisfaction and it would make him feel more appreciated by the medical community as well.”

“The other side – highlighted Schillaci – obviously concerns the fact that family doctors must keep up with the changing times by asking them for a different and more effective collaboration within a general framework”.

The Minister then spoke again of Pnrr: “It is true that there is a lot of money, but thinking back on it, I say that the Plan was born after Covid to ensure that there is better healthcare, but there are other items of expenditure perhaps less important than health that have much more funds than they are been allocated to health that perhaps are not spent. 15-20 billion is a lot but perhaps there could have been more for health”.

Schillaci then announced that the Privacy Guarantor has given the go-ahead for the implementation of the electronic health record: “It wasn’t easy, the previous government hadn’t succeeded, and we did it in 7 months. This is an important result. I believe digitalisation is the starting point for reducing inequalities in health care”.

The Minister also addressed the issue of the Aifa reform: “It is a process that we hope to conclude within the summer or immediately after TO have a leaner and less bureaucratic AIFA and ensure that innovations are available to all citizens”.

Support role for the Ministry. “The regions – said the Minister – go at different speeds and we are seeing it even now on the recovery of waiting lists so I believe that we need to make sure that the regions that perhaps have more difficulties or more problems can in some way be help and for this reason there is all the availability on the part of the ministry for which I claim at least a greater role of control and non-punitive help for those who have more difficulties. And I think it is necessary to do this because it leads to a reduction of possible inequalities”.

09 June 2023
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