One in four makes it. Over 65,000 aspiring doctors are competing on 6 September for the approximately 16,000 places available to access Medicine and Surgery. The competition, which has long been the subject of discussion due to the need for specialists and general practitioners, has also entered the center of the political debate in view of the elections on 25 September. Among those opposed to the current system is the Lega, the first party to make a political battle out of it, followed by the allies of the Brothers of Italy, which is why, in the event of a center-right victory in politics, the admission test to Medicine in 2022 could also be the last. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, is more cautious, which apart from isolated opinions has not yet expressed an official line.
The first to launch the proposal was Matteo Salvini. The leader of the Carroccio on 23 August, at the Rimini meeting, denounced: There are no doctors and nurses, someone goes to look for them in Cuba, Albania, the Philippines … Because we cannot copy the French system, where everyone has access to the first year of the faculty of medicine, no one excluded ?. A recipe suggested a few days earlier by the Lazio Regional Health Councilor, Alessio D’Amato, in the Pd share, but soon rejected by the Minister of the University Cristina Messa, according to which to be able to do an equal course for all 60 thousand who they would like to enter Medicine in Italy practically impossible. Mass, however, has repeatedly stressed the need to introduce new features to ensure students know as early as June and not September whether they entered or not. Furthermore, for the minister, the choice of the French model with the first year barrier on the basis of the exams taken, risks turning out to be counterproductive precisely for the students. Let’s be careful – she warned her – that then passes, as happens in France, only 30%. What does that 70% that does not pass?
Opinions in the center-left
The epidemiologist Pierluigi Lopalco, candidate with Article 1 for the Senate in Puglia, said he was strongly opposed to the elimination of the limited number. Not the solution to coping with the shortage of doctors. – said the professor – It is wrong who, as a certain right, thinks that the abolition of the entrance test is the simple solution to the complex problem. Of the opposite opinion Marco Vincenzi, president of the Lazio Regional Council for the Democratic Party, who took advantage of the day of the competition to express himself: Let’s say no to the limited number, for the dreams of our children, for the well-being of the community and for the right to health of all!. According to Vincenzi, this barrier to entry, introduced in a historical moment different from the current one, hinders the right to study and does not allow children to follow the passion and dream of their life.
Center right decided
If there is no single answer in the center-left, on the right, after Salvini’s pressure, they seem increasingly determined on the need to change the system. For Brothers of Italy Luciano Ciocchetti, candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in the uninominal of Rome 6, to ask for the abolition of the limited number. The admission tests to the Faculty of Medicine are an obsolete tool which harms not only students but also the whole country, Ciocchetti said before sending a message to the voters: I will be the promoter of a proposal to completely abolish the limited number in Italian universities as early as next year. Finally, also intervened the president of Liguria, Giovanni Toti di Noi Moderati, who on 6 September with a post on Facebook addressed a thought to the 65,000 candidates: Good luck to them and also a wish: may it be the last time !.