More money, more rewards and more family time. When it comes to their own future, young people medici Italians don’t hesitate, they know what they want and where to look for it. And so, without major regrets, they pack up and go to work abroad. The choice is not new. But now the institutions are beginning to take note of it, with concern. Three days ago, the Minister of Health Horace Schillaci, he reiterated this at the inauguration of the Academic Year of the Catholic University of Rome: «In the ten years from 2005 to 2015, over 10,000 doctors left Italy to work abroad, an exodus of human capital that we can no longer afford ». Doctors have actually been denouncing it for some time. Yet, so far nothing has changed. The president of Fnomceo, the National Federation of Medical Orders Filippo Anelli, wanted to remind him again. If young people leave, the fault lies with the “poor quality of work and life, inadequate salaries, lack of safety which also puts workers at risk of aggression”.
ELOQUENT FIGURES
The numbers, moreover, leave no room for doubt. According to the Sumai Assoprof Study Center, from 2008 to 2021 there were 14,341 Italian doctors who bought a one-way ticket. The most coveted foreign country up until two years ago was the United Kingdom (5,578 Italian doctors), then Switzerland with 3,095, France with 1,593 doctors, Germany with 1,395, Israel with 957, Belgium with 883. The least popular are the USA with 303 transfers, Canada with 280 and Ireland with 257.
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Antonio Magi, general secretary of Sumai Assoprof, who has also dedicated a book to the theme of the exodus of new doctors (“Specialist, situation as at 2021, forecast as at 2030″) explains it by counting the pockets of his European colleagues: «If you compare the average remuneration of a UK specialist with that of an Italian, converted into US dollars, we note that the former is 155,767 dollars, the latter 61,130”. A good 94,637 dollars a year of difference. In Belgium and Germany the situation is even more attractive: 167,348 dollars for the former and 166,989 dollars for the latter, while France and Switzerland are kept lower, where they earn respectively 132,632 dollars and 155,804 dollars.It is therefore difficult to resist the temptation to leave jobs that are often precarious and poorly paid. Also because Italian doctors abroad are “courted” with attractive offers, in cash and with additional benefits. “In Germany, for example, Magi continues – to overcome the difficulty of In addition to housing, the state also offers a job for the spouse in the language and of course a language school for both. As a country Italy, in terms of remuneration we are therefore heavily penalized compared to the other countries, we win the comparison only with Portugal and Greece, and certainly, at the moment, we cannot stand the competition from other countries which offer our doctors numerous economic and of career”.
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NOT JUST MONEY
But it’s not just much higher salaries that will attract young people. «It’s not just an economic problem explains Guido Quici, president of the Cimo Fesmed doctors’ union. For young people, growth opportunities and therefore the aspect linked to motivations also matter a lot. The doctor also wants to feel gratified in terms of the relationship with the patient, and instead often has to deal with the budgets indicated by the general managers. Treatment time is not valued, and so due to haste it is not possible to establish a real relationship between doctor and patient, nor are it possible to give detailed information on the so-called informed consent”. As if that weren’t enough, very often the structures do not apply the employment contract. A young doctor basically has no career prospects. «Let’s not forget that in England you become a primary school at 40-43 years old. If we add to this the attacks, the disputes, the bureaucracy, it is easy to understand the choice to leave Italy». After all, Italian doctors are highly sought after abroad. «Those who work in radiology, or nuclear doctors, or those with specific skills are in great demand, explains Anelli. Then obviously anesthesiologists and surgeons are always in great demand. All these doctors, then, when they go to work abroad, remain registered in our registers for a period and then many decide to cut ties even with the order of origin ».
Meanwhile, the no longer young professionals who have ever thought of emigrating feel a little disoriented. «The opportunities and ambitions of my generation, admits Cristina Cenci, 50, an internist at the Foligno hospital, were different. We weren’t tempted to leave. However, working conditions today have really changed. If young people leave it is above all because they want to be able to put their skills to good use».
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