By 2028, more than four thousand general practitioners will retire in Lombardy. A very high number in an already precarious situation with a shortage of doctors increasingly evident in many cities and neighborhoods. To date, 221 doctors are missing in the metropolitan city of Milan and several Milanese districts (Giambellino, Ronchetto sul Naviglio, Barona) and municipalities (Buccinasco, Pieve Emanuele, Abbiategrasso) suffer from this shortage.
How to reverse the trend? The regional council approved the professional training “to allow – a note reads – to doctors in training to compete for the assignment of areas with deficiencies and to assist up to a thousand patients”. In the regional council, on the other hand, a motion was approved (proposed by the League) asking to increase funding for scholarships and to bring forward the end of the 2018/2021 training course in order to immediately find 379 trainees who could become effective within few months.
The motion also asks to reward doctors who wish to increase the “ceiling” of patients, from 1,500 to two thousand, and to increase the number of patients for doctors in training in the third year from 650 to one thousand. This is a point that not everyone likes. “I challenge anyone – replies Elisabetta Strada dei Lombardi civic pro-Europeans – to find listening and attention from their doctor under these conditions. Certainly not because they are slackers but because it is not possible to guarantee adequate care of the patient under these conditions. Obviously I voted against this dysfunctional health strategy “.
Motions also in the municipalities
Meanwhile, the League continues on its line: Linda Colombo, mayor of Bareggio and coordinator of the first Northern League citizens in the Ticino area, makes it known that she and her colleagues are ready to have motions similar to the one approved in the Region approved by their respective municipal councils. “We have presented – comments Colombo – a series of proposals that the junta will bring to the tables of the competent ministries”. The first is the abolition of the limited number in medical faculties, then they are asked to invest more in training and scholarships.
“We hope that even in administrations where the League is not in the majority – concludes Colombo – this motion will be approved, without excuses, because it is about the right to health of our citizens. The Lombardy Region, approving a resolution this week that establishes the professional training to allow doctors in training to compete for the assignment of areas with deficiencies and thus be able to assist up to 1,000 patients, is already doing its part. Now we mayors also want to give a strong signal to the Government: the emergency is there, there will be and must be managed promptly and with common sense “.
“Scaricabarile on the Government”
But the political controversy is around the corner. “The regional council rejected the proposal of the Democratic Party which provided for an extraordinary plan of several scholarships and incentives”, replies Francesca Ulivi, who will be the head of the civic list Milano in Salute to the municipalities of Milan (in support of Beppe Sala): ” The League has placed the responsibility for the lack of personnel on the government “. And for Marco Fumagalli, outgoing councilor at Palazzo Marino and ‘inspirer’ of the list, “in this way not only citizens are mocked but also general practitioners”.
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