Abolition of the closed number in Medicine, no of the rector of Turin Geuna

Abolish the closed number at the Faculty of Medicine? “Removing it would crash the system.” If in Rome the minister has set up a working commission that also evaluates this hypothesis, in Turin the number one in via Verdi says a loud and clear no. Word of the rector Stefano Geuna, who today participated together with his counterpart from the Polytechnic Guido Saracco, the mayor Stefano Lo Russo, the councilor for educational services of the Municipality Carlotta Salerno and the president of EDISU in the press conference for the strengthening of the city network spaces where children can go to study.

The rector of the University explained that «The abolition of the numerus clausus it is completely unfeasible». Despite the dramatic shortage of doctors and there are requests from everywhere wipe it out or at least significantly expand the number of students who start that career, so as to increase the number of health professionals, Geuna listed the reasons why it cannot be done: «First of all, there are courses in which people who want to register are five or ten times more than the number of seats current. And then the doctors must be trained very well and for a long time. An abolition would throw the system into a tailspin.’ The problem, he continues, does not only concern frontal lessons, but also practical training: «Internships in hospitals and laboratories must be done very well. All the more reason for that area if we had many more students we wouldn’t even be able to have the staff to take courses that really prepare them».

In short, the limited number in the United Kingdom is not discussed. As a consolation for those who hoped to go in a different direction, the fact remains that the University is however working on an increase (actually small) of the available places: “We’ve had a steady increase over the years and there’s always been an upward adjustment.” In the coming months, in Piedmont, «we should reach 850/900 places, with the prospect in the coming years to reach up to a thousand. Then there are more posts of specialization to be planned». What is certain is that whatever the effects are, they are not seen in the long term, given that in addition to the years of the single-cycle Medicine course there are post-graduate specializations. “The planning of medical professions is long-term, we need to plan today to see effects in eleven years», concludes Geuna. In short, the problems of Piedmontese medicine will hardly be able to be solved only with “own” resources.

In fact, in our Region, 1,500 more doctors would be needed in hospitals alone to deal with all the shortages. As explained by La Stampa two weeks ago, some specialties suffer in a particular way: 250 emergency doctors are missing, 155 in anesthesia and resuscitation, 115 in internal medicine, 110 in general medicine, 200 in pediatrics and a hundred between neurology and orthopedics.