«Also in Gallarate it is necessary to change the healthcare model: from a waiting medicine to an initiative medicine». Michele Bisaccia, family doctor in Gallarate and medical director of a city nursing home, he is now a candidate in the ranks of the center-left for Margherita Silvestrini.
Together with the social issue, the issue of health is one of the most developed points in Silvestrini’s program (who was councilor for social matters from 2011 to 2016). “In the health organization more importance must be given to local assistance ”explains Bisaccia, also connecting to the theme of the “Homes of health” that should be born with the involvement of local communities (and therefore of the Municipalities).
«The municipal administration is the privileged subject to find places and organizational paths capable of providing those answers that are absent today. In the healthcare structure of the Lombardy Region, the general practitioner or pediatrician are no longer the central figures in managing the health of their patients, they should instead represent the “focal point” of coordinating health interventions on their patients ».
“The old healthcare model is the one that rests on waiting medicine which is activated only when the patient is ill – while initiative medicine is a preventive medicine that aims to intervene on needs of our patients – intervening earlier, in order to prevent them from getting sick, “he says Saddlebag, who in addition to being a family doctor is also the Medical Director of the Melo di Gallarate.
«Precisely because it is preventive medicine it is clear that the focus of this medicine is territorial medicine and cannot be the hospital: it will always be entrusted with the task of waiting medicine because the hospital will never be able to take preventive action against the citizens but will always take care of the sick.
But, if the action we want to take is to reduce and prevent the number of chronically ill patients who at this moment represent the real problem and cost of our healthcare, the only possibility of intervention is a strengthening of territorial medicine: the protagonist of this change must be the family doctor.
The family doctor is the protagonist of the change
“In this process of change, the family doctor becomes the real protagonist, being a sort of consultant for families on health: it is clear that in the perspective of a development of territorial medicine one can think of development of health facilities such as the Health Homes. They have already been conceived and implemented in other Regions, where the presence of the family doctor is of primary importance and will be able to operate inside or outside them, coordinating – in the same way – all the professionals who gravitate around territorial medicine. : the community nurse, the physiotherapist, the social workers. Greater aggregation and coordination between the various professional figures is essential to offer the best service to the citizen ».
In program by Margherita Silvestrini on health there is also the theme of “Community medicine for proximity services to citizens,” where the commitment is aimed at allowing them to take care of themselves and others, supporting proximity medicine to citizens, in homes and neighborhoods, with prevention and health protection services in the living places and favoring the regulated experimentation of the Neighborhood Nurse, structured interventions at home, clinics available H24 and 7 days a week, community service, secretariats and help desks at a distance for guidance in the management of health problems, even important, but not urgent.
Busto-Gallarate single hospital: before a structure of excellence, a contour fabric must be created so that it can function adequately
In the background, however, there is the great perspective of the Gallarate-Busto single hospital, amidst promises, long periods of stasis, sudden accelerations like the one seen between spring and early summer, “ride” especially from the center-right of Busto.
“It’s clear that an excellent health facility could be desirable in the future and that this structure can respond at the same time to the needs of two municipalities: the problem is that this step should be taken only after having strengthened territorial medicine because if we focus exclusively on a hospital structure we will always go towards a waiting medicine, a type of medicine that is now old and that cannot respond in any way to the preventive moment »says Bisaccia, urged by Margherita Silvestrini on the subject.
«The synergy between the professional figures is of fundamental importance: unfortunately the feeling I have at the moment is that today buildings are given more importance than the people who occupy those same buildings. So I believe that the problem is not to find a new structure where to place the hospital, ma is to organize those who work within the hospital itself. And again, I think that a similar reasoning also applies to the houses of healthe: the determining factor before thinking about the structure is to organize who will work inside it such as family doctors, community nurses and others. Without going to distort the role – which remains central and of great help – of the family doctor, it is essential to interpret him more and more as a family consultant for the protection of health. My colleagues and I have lived and experienced it – especially in this pandemic period – where news comes from all areas and often generates a lot of confusion. In fact, I believe that our role has always been to bring clarity and make suggestions. More than offering information, of which we are submerged today, we must offer solutions ».