Rome, December 12, 2022 – “The current budget law is a measure that causes a leap backwards for doctors and healthcare professionals due to the sharp reduction in healthcare resources”, said Ludovico Abbaticchio, National President of the Italian Doctors Union.
“The related measures, such as the Community Houses, cannot be a response to the crisis of general medicine, because as foreseen they risk becoming physical structures but without staff inside them. There is the danger of having, once again, cathedrals in the desert also due to the shortage of doctors, who are fewer and fewer in relation to the population. The general practitioners who currently operate in our country are unable to best satisfy the need for health that comes from citizens because they are weighed down by excessive bureaucracy which prevents them from dedicating more time to patient care”.
“Young people are no longer attracted to the medical profession due to low salaries and the difficulties of a training system. Training for young doctors must have uniform criteria throughout Italy and can no longer be entrusted on a regional basis and to professional orders, but must be independent. We believe that the establishment of a specialization school of general medicine that can produce a close connection between the university world and the territory can no longer be postponed”.
“The specialization school can represent an opportunity for retraining, for redefining training objectives and for adapting the quality standards of all Italian training centers, as happens in most other European countries. Only in this way will it be possible to eliminate the differences in postgraduate medical training and create a single, quality training channel for all young doctors”.
“For these reasons, in the next few days we will develop all the union initiatives to fight and propose so that the budget law accepts the doctors’ requests. Only in this way will we also be able to strengthen and renew the role of trade union representatives and indicate to professional orders, which sometimes go beyond their functions, the role of guarantee” concludes Abbaticchio.