General medicine. Smi, CGIL Medici and Simet reject the draft of the new agreement: “It is inadmissible”

The trade unions: “The pandemic has changed the work of doctors. Regions and the Government give alternative answers. We believe that the resources of the PNRR must be linked to the discussion of the new ACN with a strong investment in the staff who are the real drivers of local services ”.

13 SET – “The examination of the draft agreement sent by Sisac shows that the Government and the Regions have not taken into account what has happened in the last two years of the pandemic and how the work for all doctors has changed for the worse”, so in a joint note of the National Directorates of the medical unions of SMI – CGIL Medici – SIMET, gathered to evaluate the contents of the draft of the national collective agreement for general medicine.

“This ACN does not capture the effort made by general practitioners, does not take into account costs, responsibilities and increased workloads, does not offer organizational tools to make the profession more attractive and to stem the exodus of young people abroad doctors, as well as mass early retirement, does not take into account the need to outline new protections at work (in light of the hundreds of deaths due to covid infection) ”.

“We believe that the resources of the PNRR must be linked to the discussion of the new ACN with a strong investment in the staff who are the real drivers of local services. The shortage of doctors is a problem that we must address immediately. In the province of Bologna alone, 288 general practitioners are missing, not to mention other northern regions such as Veneto, Lombardy or Piedmont. Even the disadvantaged areas of southern Italy have entire uncovered assistance areas including essential services such as emergency medical services and 118 ”.

“It is a priority to invest PNRR resources on personnel, not only on healthcare buildings, to cope with the exponential increase in workloads and to foster organizational innovation. But all this is not foreseen in the proposed draft ”continue SMI – CGIL Medici-SIMET.

“There is nothing new in the relationship between national and regional bargaining. The pandemic has highlighted and amplified the shortcomings of our National Health Service, caused by decades of linear cuts and defining the health of citizens considered an expense rather than an investment for the country. Territorial assistance, in particular, suffers from serious organizational shortcomings: family doctors left alone to assist domiciled patients; left to themselves, without protocols and guidelines; without support staff, without adequate equipment, without safeguards and safety procedures, the cause of the many infections among doctors, many of whom died in the field without system protection “.

“This ACN does not address these critical issues, but on the contrary it is also penalizing from an economic point of view for doctors as it eliminates some function allowances or reassigns them to health facilities, thus proposing the paradox, that despite the extraordinary effort that the pandemic has caused, doctors’ salaries are significantly reduced ”.

“For these reasons, we appeal to all political forces, to the institutional leaders of the Parliament, the Government and the Regions to start a discussion table that is consistent with the reform proposals they are preparing for the enhancement of territorial and decent assistance for the professionalism of the doctors who guarantee the health of citizens. Faced with the organizational challenges that the reform proposes to us, a more solid union unity is indispensable to face the new demands of general medicine. We have the responsibility to give concrete and innovative answers to the whole category, in a renewed alliance with citizens, on pain of abandoning and declining the profession ”.

“The pandemic has demonstrated to the whole country that the time has come for a major public investment in community medicine personnel to improve the quality of the care offer. The Regions and the Government cannot, in words, elevate doctors to heroes and then subtract economic and organizational resources from the new needs of general medicine. Change this national collective agreement: it is inadmissible! ” conclude.

September 13, 2021
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