Healthcare emergencies. Minister Orazio Schillaci outlines his plan to intervene in the most delicate sectors. “Heavier” social security contributions, higher scores for career purposes and tax exemption of the specific allowance for doctors who work in the first line of emergency and urgency or in less attractive specialties because they do not do private practice. More money also for the additional services provided by health professionals to streamline waiting lists and much more stringent limits on the use of token doctors. There will be this and more in the health omnibus decree that the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, anticipates in an all-out interview with La Stampa. As for the limited number of medical faculties, «we are working with the Miur to increase access to faculties. I wonder, however, why it is always said that there is a shortage of doctors but token holders paid four times as much can easily be found. Evidently we must commit ourselves to making work in the public sector more attractive». He mentioned stakes for the use of token doctors. What would they be? «We are thinking of setting limits both on the usable quota and on age, because it is not possible to make people who are even 70 and over work. But specialist qualifications related to the type of work that is going to be done in the hospital will also be necessary. An orthopedist cannot finish cardiology».
In the meantime, the emergency rooms explode. How do we overcome this emergency? «Definitely providing incentives for those who work there from both a career and an economic point of view. In this sense we are trying to bring forward to this year the 200 million incentives allocated for 2024. But it is essential to strengthen local health and telemedicine because today most of the accesses to the emergency room are green codes that should be treated outside of the hospital”. In this regard, where will you find doctors and nurses who will have to work in the 1,400 new homes and over 400 community hospitals? «Among family doctors, outpatient specialists, pediatricians of free choice and former medical guards, we have 82,000 professionals who today work, however, too isolated and individually while in the new structures they will be able to guarantee better assistance by working in teams. The ones that are really missing are the nurses. For this reason we are thinking of authorizing those who work in hospitals to work extra paid hours also in community homes and hospitals”.