More services guaranteed by the national health system. Especially more modern, given that the list of tests, treatments and analyzes hadn’t been updated for six years (but the price lists are even from the late nineties). More controls on the Regions so that there is a homogeneous application of the choices so that the patient of Calabria has the same opportunities as that of Emilia-Romagna or Veneto. Finally, a choice linked to the end of the pandemic: the obligation to wear masks in hospitals expires on April 30, it will not be extended. These are the news announced yesterday by the Minister of Health, Horace Schillaciwhich he had anticipated a few weeks ago in an interview with Messaggero: green light in the State-Regions Conference for the agreement on the two tariffs for specialist outpatient and prosthetic services (over 3 thousand entries in all) which implement the decree on the new essential levels of assistance (Lea). What are? The list of services provided by the National Health Service free of charge or upon payment of a ticket. Schillaci explains: «It’s a very important result, we’ve been here for 6 months and we’ve managed to unblock the Leas. It is a very strong signal that goes in the direction of unblocking inequalities”. There is, however, a funding problem. Schillaci: «A monitoring table is starting on the new Leas with the Mef. 402 million have been allocated but we will evaluate with the table any new funds and also new services to add. I have come to the ministry many times as rector, as dean, as president of a scientific association. I was sure that the next day it would be done and instead I had to become a minister to see the Leas approved”.
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But what are the most relevant news? How will the Lea affect the daily life of citizens, their health, the possibility of obtaining treatment and examinations in public hospitals? Let’s start with the times: “The provisions of the decree enter into force from 1 January 2024 as regards the rates of specialist outpatient assistance and from 1 April 2024 as regards the rates of prosthetic assistance”. Furthermore, there is talk of a series of diagnostic and therapeutic services which at the end of the 1990s were only experimental or which could only be obtained with hospitalization. The Ministry of Health has released some examples of innovations: there are medically assisted procreation (MAP) services (“in vitro fertilization with or without homologous intracytoplasmic insemination; in vitro fertilization with or without heterologous intracytoplasmic insemination with fresh oocytes”): these are not real news, but the move is to guarantee application throughout the territory; there are updates for palliative medicine, rehabilitation, radiotherapy.
For the diagnostic activity there are news on the front of rare diseases (“services for the diagnosis or monitoring of celiac disease and rare diseases for the benefit of fragile people with potentially serious problems”), the protection of pregnancy and the unborn child with new guaranteed tests . And then genetics: «In addition to the list of specific services of Molecular Genetics and Cytogenetics, a precise list of pathologies for which genetic investigation is necessary is defined». Updated technologies for radiotherapy. Other important examples for prostheses: IT and communication aids (for example, ocular communicators and keyboards); digital technology hearing aids; advanced technology artificial limbs. The goal of the reform is also to give a boost to the elimination of waiting lists. The minister: “The application of the new essential levels of assistance is the crucial point to be monitored in all regions”.
CLAIMS
Schillaci, usually measured, took out his claws replying to the criticisms: «Someone writes that this government has cut expenses for 2024, 25 and 26. But the Def, which has been published and which refers among other things to the expenditure and not to the Health Fund, is the same as that of April 22 which assigned 6.3% and 6.22% of GDP. Just like this year. It’s not my habit to make useless controversies, but we are at 6.8% and it is the highest value since 2011». Another jab on the “coin doctors” who represented an economic waste for public health: «The provision on coin-operated doctors is something to which some have given little importance. But was I supposed to find out that there were doctors paid 4 times more to work in the NHS?».
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