the single agenda does not work – breaking latest news

Secure one private visit with the national health system? Almost impossible through the portal «Health Book» of the Lombardy Region. The availability offered by the affiliated structures are sometimes only indicative: it is not possible to book the appointment directly from the institutional site. In other cases, at the time of the click the selected option “disappears” and much more distant dates are proposed.

Direct experience

The Courier service in the past few days he tried to use the site seven times to book as many exams or visits in private centers affiliated with the public system. In no case were the attempts successful. The first test is about a dermatological examination with priority class P (therefore to be carried out within 120 days, according to the National Plan for the governance of waiting lists). We find a place already the following day at Villa Esperia spa. But after entering the required codes and selecting the place and date, the system returns this message: “The indicative availability you have chosen relates to a structure integrated directly into the Regional Reservation Network, but no appointments were found available at this facility; all the available proposals relating to the province are listed below ». According to the testimonies of some citizens, the same problem also arises when choosing public structures.

Seven attempts

The hunt for the first allergological visit (in theory, always within 120 days) is no better: there is room in August in Sesto San Giovanni. Not even the shadow of affiliated private individuals. For the spirometria globale we try to choose the Don Gnocchi Foundation, but the operation fails. For a physiatric visit is only reported the availability of two centers. To book you have to go to the website of the private center and search for that same date, provided that it has not disappeared in the meantime. Nothing to do even for the CT scan of the brain, the eye examination and the lumbo-sacral magnetic resonance: the dates shown are not really bookable.

The misalignment of calendars

It should be noted that the regional portal warns the user from the beginning: “The published data are provided under the responsibility of the individual health facilities – it says – and are updated at least weekly: availability may have changed between the date of publication and the time of consultation“. Furthermore, “Book health” is not the only way. The patient can contact the regional call center, pharmacies, or go to the sites, switchboards and physical branches of each affiliated facility. Through the latter channels it is more likely to find a place, but there is no comparison with the calendars of other hospitals. The risk is that the citizen in the end chooses the visit in a private regime: opens the wallet and gets taken care of first.

The single agenda late

In addition to the misalignment of calendars, the short circuit is fueled by another problem: the lack of a single agenda in which all public and private funds are collected. A solution that has been talked about since 2009 to “guarantee a rational and transparent management of access to health services”, states the law. A regional resolution of August 2021, proposed by Vice President Letizia Moratti, gave as an ultimatum last November 30 and put 6.7 million euros on the plate for the adaptation of technological infrastructures. At the moment, however, the integration of individuals is not complete. AND Without the single agenda, all plans to cut healthcare waiting lists will struggle to work.

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