Less and less and more and more exhausted, the doctors of the 118 in Italy are less than half of those needed: currently there are about 2,300 compared to a requirement of 6,000 and many continue to leave. This continuous bleeding is denounced by the demonstration organized in Rome by doctors and health workers of the territorial emergency.
In red vests with reflectors, national, regional and provincial trade union representatives of the sector gathered in Piazza Santi Apostoli to make their voices heard “for years unheard”, they denounce.
“From the latest official survey by Sisac – explains Francesco Marino, secretary of Fimmg 118 – it emerges that the number of 118 doctors in Italy in 2021 was 2,900 compared to 6,000 that there should be, if the criteria of the National Agency of regional health services related to the presence of doctors on board ambulances In 2022, there was a decrease of 300 doctors, which led to 2,600 units and from the beginning of 2023 to the end of June the same number left in just 6 months In all of Italy we are less than 50% of the needs”.
The reasons, explains Mario Balzanelli, president of the Italian Society of System 118, “is the lack of protection for a stressful service, characterized by high burnout, with more and more colleagues who leave it because you can’t spend your entire working life on ambulances” .
Added to this problem are organizational problems, linked to the lack of hospital beds and the bottleneck that occurs when the ambulance arrives in the emergency room. “Our ambulances – adds Marino – are often parked in front of the emergency rooms. If there are no beds, they cannot leave because the patient occupies the stretcher”.
“We need attention from politics”, concludes Balzanelli, “the risk, otherwise, is that of leaving the territory without doctors of fundamental importance”.
The meeting with Minister Schillaci
“Minister Schillaci has ensured maximum support so that the health workers of the 118 system are guaranteed equal dignity with respect to other operators in the sector, and confirmed the support necessary to ensure, in concrete terms, a development of the system consistent with the need for appropriateness and quality of service”. This was reported by Mario Balzanelli, president of Sis 118, who met the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci at the end of the sit-in held in Rome.
The objective of the meeting, which was also attended by the president of the national federation of medical orders, Filippo Anelli, was to raise awareness in the government on the importance of the territorial emergency and on the need to enhance, on a professional level, all operators of 118, i.e. doctors, nurses and drivers-rescuers, today penalized by the lack of compensation. Among the issues on the table, also an overall reform and strengthening of the Territorial Emergency System. “We thank Schillaci for the closeness and sensitivity shown in accepting our requests – declares Mario Balzanelli -. After the many meetings that have taken place in the past years with other ministers, this time we hope for a concrete and decisive response to our requests”.
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