About ten in the province of Pordenone alone, without a specific concentration in areas that are already disadvantaged for other reasons such as mountain ones. In short, even in the plains and in the city. In the province of Udine even higher numbers, which come close to thirty. And these are only the certain data, because in reality the share could be even higher. In the two largest territories of Friuli Venezia Giulia, there are almost 40 general practitioners who will leave their clinic during 2023. Who already in the first months of the year, who in the second half.
Little changes: a huge problem will open up for territorial health care and patient care. This is the highest figure in the last ten years, with approx 55 miles patients who they will remain at least temporarily on foot.
THE MAP
From Aviano to Brugnera, but Pordenone is also on the map of critical points. Roveredo is also on the alert, while in the province of Udine the problem is spread throughout the territory, from the mountains to the sea, with numbers following the proportion of the inhabitants. Currently, each general practitioner manages between 1,500 and 1,700 patients. The further extension of the ceiling up to the quota of 1,800 assisted has not yet been reached. But the math isn’t difficult to do: at a minimum, 2023 for Friuli Venezia Giulia will represent the year in which around 55,000 patients (but unfortunately this is rounded down) will suddenly find themselves without their historic general practitioner. Nothing strange, if the so-called turnover worked, i.e. the mechanism for replacing retired professionals with new entries. The problem is that this gear hasn’t moved for some time. And the risk that patients really suddenly find themselves without a reference is more concrete than ever.
THE FUTURE
Then there is a figure, currently available only for the province of Udine, which represents a real nightmare for the future. «From here to 2030 – explains the Friulian president of the Order of Doctors, Gian Luigi Tiberio – more than 50 percent of general practitioners in the province of Udine will leave». The first will be those born in 1953, the others will follow. “We are talking about about 450 professionals out of the 800 operating in the provincial territory”. A massacre.
«And we are only talking about who will leave office because they will have reached the age limit of 70 – is the alarm launched by Tiberius -, because in reality general practitioners can start retiring as early as 62 years old . They can clearly do it by giving up something from an economic point of view, but there are not a few professionals who choose to leave their job early because they can’t take it anymore». From the age of 68 onwards, however, general practitioners can retire even without losing financially.
CORRECTIVE
In the province of Pordenone, the Western Friuli Health Authority is trying to trace a different path to prevent patients from being totally without the assistance of family doctors. In the province of Udine, the most populous and extensive in Friuli Venezia Giulia, the solution to the problem seems much further away, also due to the very conformation of the territory, made up of many small villages and a few larger towns. «The national political decision-maker – was the outburst of Gian Luigi Tiberio – is not giving us the solutions we deserve. There is an important conflict dictated by the Madia law, which prevents, for example, the accumulation of a pension and other income. It should be overcome.” To allow even the over seventy-year-old doctor to remain – at choice – in service with a reasonable remuneration. «And then the studio staff, which is still not enough. 70 percent of the work of a general practitioner today involves office duties».