A further step that could help reduce waiting lists and deal a serious blow to the use of token doctors. The amendments to the Pnrr decree, approved in the Budget Committee of the Chamber, go in this direction, which facilitate the hiring of specialists, marking progress towards the end of the spending cap for hiring in healthcare. Measures welcomed by the Medical Association and the trade unions.
A first amendment, explains the Undersecretary of Health Marcello Gemmato, “goes to exceed the limit currently in force, equal to 50% of the expenditure incurred in 2009, for hiring doctors and health and social-health professionals with fixed-term subordinate employment contracts: a legislative measure which in fact represents a first step towards the abolition of spending caps for staff hiring”. A second amendment also abolishes the limit of 18 months for the maximum duration of the contract for the hiring of specialists in a healthcare company that is not included in the training network of the specialization school in which they are enrolled. Thanks to this rule, specialists will be able to be hired for the entire remaining duration of the course. With the green light for these amendments which facilitate the hiring of specialists, underlines the undersecretary, “the right recognition is given to the role they play within the National Health Service. This last measure, together with the one already approved which facilitates the hiring of health and socio-health personnel with flexible contracts, represents a concrete response for strengthening the workforce in public health“.
The president of the Federation of Medical Associations (Fnomceo) Filippo Anelli says he is “satisfied”: “We welcome these measures, which represent a first step towards the elimination, hoped for by the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci and supported by the Government, of anachronistic spending ceilings for staff hiring”. Now, this is Anelli’s request, “let us finally start a plan that brings to the NHS an increase in human capital consistent with the health needs of citizens”. According to Pierino Di Silverio, secretary of the largest union of hospital doctors, Anaao Assomed, the doors are thus opened to the “unconditional participation of at least 15 thousand specialists from the last two years in the competitions. Considering that currently the estimated shortage of doctors is around 30 thousand , these measures – he states – can represent one of the concrete ways to combat the shortage of personnel and the doctors who are tokenists, but only if the work is completed with a bill that definitively contracts all the trainees, thus increasing the training quality”. Now, warns the union leader, “we need to act on the times and bureaucracy of the competitions, which are still too long and outdated: if the times for the competitions were speeded up, in fact, we could think of the arrival of this breath of fresh air represented by the postgraduates already within the year”.
In particular, the Anaao welcomes the abolition of the 18-month restriction as the maximum duration of the employment relationship of a trainee in a non-network training structure. Provision, Di Silverio clarifies, which “leads to complete liberalization for the hiring of young colleagues”. A positive opinion also comes from the Cimo-Fesmed medical union and the National Federation of Nursing Professions Orders (Fnopi) also says it is “satisfied”: “The nursing profession is the one with the highest number of fixed-term contracts – comments the president Barbara Mangiacavalli -. Thanks to these measures it will be possible to reduce the use of atypical work, which has not produced any cost containment, and also contribute to reducing waiting lists”.
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