Exhausted by the Covid emergency, which has put a strain on their resistance and the stability of the entire health system, now another problem arises for Lombard general practitioners, which is only of interest to an audience of 600 general practitioners: how and where to find substitutes to switch off and take at least 15 days of vacation, if the potential substitute colleagues and young professionals are largely enrolled in the vaccination campaign and engaged in the Usca (Special Continuity Units welfare)? A real puzzle to manage among doctors, given that – according to a plausible and prudential estimate – only in the province a minimum of 150-200 professionals would be needed to replace colleagues on vacation and the Ats do not play any role in the mechanism: they are in fact the doctors themselves to have to shoulder the burden of finding and paying a freelance colleague to replace them to go on vacation. «This year it is really difficult to find available colleagues – underlines Paola Pedrini, general practitioner from Bergamo and regional secretary of the Federation of general practitioners (Fimmg) -. Many colleagues have entered specialization, others are profitably contributing to the vaccination campaign and still others are enrolled in the Usca. There are no substitutes. Since we are freelancers affiliated with the health system, when we decide to go on vacation we pay the replacement for those days. A feasible solution could be to give more freedom to the medical students who are doing the training course in general medicine, offering the possibility of some substitutions to those who want to do so “.
DE L’ECO DI BERGAMO
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