The new contract for 135,000 doctors and healthcare managers is released with a total endowment of around 650 million which should translate into average net increases per month of between 130 and 190 euros depending on seniority and professional assignment and with around 100 euros of extra allowance for white coats who work in emergency rooms (there are 27 million available for this item alone allocated by the 2021 maneuver). These are the hypotheses on the negotiation table which will begin in February, but the doctors’ unions say they are not satisfied: “The money is not enough – they say -, but we are using the contract to improve working conditions”.
Resources and possible payroll increases
In fact, Aran has just summoned the doctors’ unions for February 2 to try to close the contract within 2-3 months and in any case by spring: after the go-ahead from the Regions and the Ministry of the Economy, they have indeed arrived on the table of the Agency for the negotiating representation of the PA the guidelines for the renewal of the 2019-2021 collective bargaining agreements for doctors, but also for central functions (ministries, tax agencies and non-economic public bodies) for over 4,000 managers and 2,000 professionals. doctors there are about 650 million available: over 580 million as a basic allocation, 34 million for ancillary items and 27 million allocated to support the indemnity to be paid to those who work in emergency rooms. The average increases for white coats should be between 130 and 190 euros net, while the allowance for emergency doctors should be worth around 100 euros net.
The goal is to try to stop the exodus from the NHS
The new contract for white coats – which has actually already expired – coincides with the end of the most acute phase of the pandemic, but also with the departure of the investments of the Pnrr which total 20 billion Cubans for Healthcare and tip – as stated in the deed guidance – both to “encourage entry into the NHS for young people” and to “retain/retain professionals who already work there, providing for career development, but also ways of working that allow for better harmonization with private and family life” . In fact, for years there has been a real exodus from the Public Health Service, a phenomenon that has been accentuated with the pandemic, both due to the lower economic attractiveness and to the increasingly prohibitive working conditions, between exhausting shifts, holidays and missed rest periods and career progression blocked.
Medical unions: “The funds are not enough”
«The funds made available are certainly not enough to make work in the NHS more attractive, but this contract must in any case be exploited to improve working conditions, rights such as holidays and rest periods must be truly collectable and more flexibility is also needed instead of surround doctors with obligations and incompatibilities,” he warns Pierino Di Silverio secretary of Anaao Assomed, the main acronym of the hospitals. That he underlines how crucial it is «to encourage young people by allowing for early career development, otherwise we don’t have to ask ourselves why a young person prefers to work on a token basis rather than being hired on a permanent basis». The Federation of Veterinary Doctors and Health Managers also criticizes the resources allocated: «Unless an extraordinary intervention in economic and regulatory terms – says the president Aldo Grasselli – it will not be this poor, late, timid and hasty contract that will mitigate the discontent of the health personnel ».