Claudia Osmetti
«The anti-Covid vaccine is a requirement that the law provides for practicing the medical profession. Who does not have it, today, is an abusive ». Filippo Anelli does not mince words, the president of Fnomceo, the National Federation of the Orders of Italian doctors and dentists. The quiet, calm tone: answer after answer. Yet Anelli is not the type that goes around us, he is one who goes to the point. “There are two”, he says, “the necessary requirements to be a doctor, in Italy, in 2021: a degree with qualification and vaccination against Cronavirus. Anyone who does not vaccinate is abusive to the profession. I don’t say it, the rules say it ».
Doctor Anelli, who controls these conditions?
«The law assigns the task of verification to the local health authorities, which must transmit the assessed assessments to the relevant category orders. Which, in a large part of the country, has not yet happened today. And despite the fact that, since early April, the orders have already sent the lists of registered doctors to the Regions ».
Excuse me, I am lost. What do the Regions have to do with it, there was no talk of Asl?
«The process is this: The Regions, through their platforms, check the lists that the order of shift sends. When they discover an unvaccinated doctor, the subject is invited to the competent ASL, to explain his position. If the justifications are not suitable, the ASL issues a suspension measure and communicates it, in turn, to the professional association to which it belongs, which publishes it on its register. There is, however, a communication problem between these subjects ».
But, then, are the cases that have come out in the press these days only a part of the actual ones?
“They are a minority. Look, we started with a first survey, made by the government a few months ago, which spoke of 42 thousand health workers not yet vaccinated. Today that number has dropped to 36,000. It means that just 6 thousand have been “recalled”.
In these 6 thousand there are also those who, for various reasons, can not get the vaccine?
“Of course”.
But hasn’t the big guy been called upon to justify his position yet?
“Exactly. And he continues to exercise in an inappropriate way ».
What do you think of the vaccination obligation?
“It’s a concrete possibility, but it should be the last hypothesis to consider. If we reach a high level of vaccinations it will probably not be necessary ».
What if we don’t reach the goal?
“As with measles, it will probably have to be debated whether an obligation law is necessary. But it is a question that belongs to politics ».
Obvious. What is the threshold to reach to stay safe?
«An epidemiological check must be made. 80% of the population should be the minimum threshold. But the real problem is that, for a year and a half, our hospitals have been overworked and patients with chronic diseases or cancers have not been able to access treatment ».
Is it Covid’s fault?
“It sure didn’t help. I’ll give you an example: if the anesthetist has to be in intensive care today, it is clear that he cannot be in the operating room. And if he’s not in the operating room, the surgeries take longer. We have no doctors ».
The shortage of staff, however, is a phenomenon that we have been dragging on for years …
“Absolutely. With the pandemic, we have lost more than 370 colleagues. It’s a significant number, but the point is that a lot of people are retiring early. ‘
How is it resolved?
«We need to make a broad reasoning. Now, for example, we have authorized 14,300 places in Medicine, but in six years only 6,000 will be able to continue their studies because there is no money. I will be told “we have time to remedy”, I hope so. And then there is another fact ».
Which?
«A structural intervention policy is now being developed. We buy new tacs, new resonances, adapting hospitals to anti-seismic criteria, that’s fine. But it is necessary to intervene on the professionals ».
Do you have any proposals to fight the virus?
“Minister Speranza (of Health, ed) would do well to meet the various associations of doctors and ask for a strong commitment, when they visit patients, to investigate the reasons, if they come across someone who is not vaccinated”.
In what sense?
«Citizens who turn to doctors also base their relationship on a feeling of trust. When one enters the National Health Service, if the professional investigates a bit about the reasons why, perhaps, he has refused the vaccination, he will discover fears, anxieties ».
This is enough?
“If colleagues are willing to give some answers, probably a part of the population that does not have a bias towards the vaccine can change their mind.”
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