Covid has confronted us with evidence of the facts: there is a shortage of doctors in Italy. To be precise, there is a lack of doctors specialized in certain areas. So no, putting the open number back in the Faculty of Medicine is not the solution to the problem, as many actually think, the first Matteo Salvini.
Over the years, among other things, the places in the most coveted faculty have increased, as have the interns. However, this has not solved the problems in the health sector, which are mainly due to long waiting lists that do not allow patients to receive assistance on time and in a hurry. In a long investigation by Corriere della Sera, conducted by Milena Gabanelliwe explain the reasons why, in fact, the closed number a Medicine it is not the panacea for all ills, but rather in the opposite sense one could encounter more problems than solutions.
The number open to Medicine does not solve health problems in Italy
The Faculty of Medicine it is one of the many realities in which high school students, in order to enter, must come across a test. As is known, it is not easy to overcome it, both because it is rather difficult and because there are so many, every year, those who “try their luck”.
The reason why this barrier was introduced – ran the year 1999 – it is practical, and does not want to mortify students who remain excluded, rather it responds to the need to train future doctors who can be up to the task they will cover as soon as they finish their studies. It was the then Minister of University and Research, Hortensio Sequin, to sign the law that changed things. The number of places in Medicine, in fact, is linked to the availability of classrooms, teachers, laboratoriesto the possibility of doing internships and to participation of students in compulsory educational activities.
By doing so, another problem has also been solved: avoiding churning out too many unemployed, as happens in practice in many other faculties. Every year, the universities communicate to the Miur the places available and, at the same time, the State-Regions Conference collects data on how many doctors will be ready to enter hospitals after ten years. The result is that, together, the university numbers are defined by university.
Dal 2019 until the 2022have been guaranteed the 50% more than places (on a national basis). This year, for example, they have been 4961 more students who entered Medicine compared to 2018, which also changed the proportions of those who, on the other hand, did not make it. Of the 60 thousand candidates from four years ago, alone one in sevenup and down the 15%managed to pass the test, now the percentage has risen to 25%with at least one student out of every four who tries succeeds.
At university levels, the State of Milan went from 410 seats in 2013 to 515 in 2022. At the Sapienza it’s at Tor Vergataa Romathe places have grown respectively from 908 to 1156 and from 240 to 290, and the same trend can also be seen at Bologna, Firenzeat the Frederick II from Napoli.
The effects should have already been seen, but this was not the case because, precisely, the Medicine entrance test is not the problem – just as it is not a solution – to the fact that, in Italy, there is a shortage of doctors who it was especially noticeable during the Covidbut which is also visible now that thesanitary emergency it has subsided a lot. The long waiting lists to which patients are forced, in fact, is due to the lack of doctors yes, but specializedespecially in certain areas.
In Italy there is a lack of doctors specialized in emergency medicine
Once the six canonical years are over, doctors do not finish studying, but must choose one specialization. Not everyone manages to get into the one they want on the first try, still others don’t get into it precisely because demand is greater than supply. Between 2013 and 2018, of the 51,369 recent graduates, only 43,748 completed their studies, most by entering specialization school, others choosing the path of three-year training courses to become family doctors.
A specialist, however, is not free for the state. Unlike all other faculties, in which i traineeships and internships I am underpaid or even free, training costs from 102 to 128 thousand euros. And this is precisely why it puts a brake, because one realizes that there is indeed a shortage, but one does not have the financial instruments to respond to all requests, especially those of the National health system.
Despite this, however, things have changed over the years, and even if there are not more and more applications, the places in the various specialization schools have more than doubled from 2018 to 2022, while the three-year courses for doctors of family are 60% more now than four years ago.
The problem, again, is that in the face of these increases, there are departments that still remain uncovered. The boom of experts of microbiology and virology has not led to doctors wanting to invest in the profession, for example, and of the 129 places banned, as of November 7, as many as 106 have remained without assignment (the82,2%). In Emergency and urgency medicineon the other hand, the percentage of unassigned scholarships is 58,6%: in practice, they remained uncovered 499 places out of a total of 851, and this is the most alarming figure considering that there is an emergency in this sense that has also led the structured to demonstrate. But radiotherapists and anesthesiologists are also missing.
The sense in which we must work is to reduce the places in the specialties that are not needed, and which are often also the most requested, to go and calculate those that will instead be even more indispensable at the end of the cycle, therefore from four to six years in based on the chosen specialization. Only in this way, in fact, will it be possible to fill that vacuum of doctors which, as yet, is not due to the entrance test to Medicine.
Also because Mario’s government Draghi, with decree 1107 of 24 September 2022, allowed high school students (and others) to attempt it at least twice a year. The scores will always remain the same, ie 1.5 points for each correct answer, -0,4 for those wrong e zero for those left in bianco. And the lottery, the lottery if you prefer, could become a little less so.
Ad April e July all those who can participate they are graduating, have graduated and are even in their penultimate year of high school. Il best score it will then be inserted into the platform from which it will come out final ranking. All this, obviously, if the government of Giorgia Melons will implement it and, considering the interest of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvinion the number open to the most coveted faculty it’s not hard to believe that it will happen.