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The doctors of the medical guards will soon arrive to strengthen the ranks of family doctors, who are increasingly difficult to find, so much so that in twenty years there are 10,000 fewer. Thanks to an amendment (which sees the honorable Marta Schifone of FdI as the first signatory) to the Omnibus Decree definitively approved in the Senate on June 28, each medical guard will be able to take charge of up to a thousand patients, which means that “they will bring assistance to 1.5 million more citizens and safeguards the effectiveness of the medical guard”, underlined Tommasa Maio, national secretary of the Italian Federation of general practitioners Continuity of care (Fimmg Ca).
Response to programming failure
According to the latest estimates, the great hemorrhage of family doctors will continue at least until 2025 when, according to Agenas estimatesthere will be only 36,628 available to Italians: there were over 46,000 in 2002 and 40,000 in 2021. In this scenario, the amendment provides until 2026 for doctors to have the sole role of primary care with an hourly assignment of 24 hours a week (that is, the doctors of the former medical guards) to have up to a thousand patients in charge.
«In the context of serious shortages of professionals that afflicts many areas of the country, an emergency measure like this – said Maio – is very important to contain the damages of the failure to plan. Especially when compared to the inertia of the Regions which on the one hand complain of a shortage of doctors and on the other continue to cause delays in the publication of tenders for the training of new recruits in general medicine”. A delay, he points out, which “prevents the ministry from providing for the national notice and, therefore, from setting the date of the competition which would lead to strengthening an increasingly widespread and effective assistance on the territory immediately after passing the competition”.
Guarantee of continuity of care
Also expressing relief is the general secretary of Cittadinanzattiva Anna Lisa Mandorino, who has been engaged for some time in monitoring and denouncing the desertification of the public assistance offer and the difficulties that doctors and patients have to face on a daily basis. A desertification that began some time ago and which has worsened in recent years due to the maxi exodus of white coats who retire en masse with “spare parts” that are not sufficient to fill the holes left by those who have left. «It seems to us to be good news – said Mandorino – because it will make it possible to avoid that millions of citizens remain without a family doctor and will help guarantee the functioning of the continuity of care. Clearly, there is still a long way to go, because shortages are a national issue. An issue that dramatically affects Northern Italy, but which is also increasingly felt in many areas of the South». The publication of the law in the Official Gazette is now awaited.