The shortage of doctors in Italy risks becoming structural. The confirmation comes from the data on specialization schools released by Anaao Assomed, the main acronym of hospital doctors. Despite the increase in the number of scholarships for residents to almost 15,000 a year, more and more new medical graduates decide to become “token doctors“. The alarm was raised by Giammaria Liuzzi, youth manager of Anaao Assomed, on the pages of The sun 24 hours. 3-4 shifts in the emergency room are enough for an on-call doctor to earn the 1,300 euros a month of residents, he thundered.
The golden fees of doctors in tokens
Young Italian doctors are fleeing Italian public health not only for economic reasons but also because they are “tired, angry, disillusioned”, explains the national secretary of Anaao, Pierino Di Silverio, recalling that every day seven doctors leave the public service. A real hemorrhage that shows no sign of stopping, aggravated by the fact that the new recruits are oriented above all towards the private sector.
The photograph taken by Anaao is very clear: the interns dodge the “hardest” departments. Which ones are they? The more stressful ones, like emergency rooms. Suffice it to say that out of 886 scholarships advertised to specialize in emergency medicine, more than half (537) have not been assigned. The situation is also critical for intensive care, with 279 unassigned scholarships out of 1,248 banned. White coats also avoid microbiology and virology: out of 131 banned scholarships, 113 are unassigned. According to Liuzzi, one of the great problems of the shortage of doctors in the national health service is also linked to the lack of reform of the training course: “We are the only country where there are no training employment contracts, here the specialists who work every day in the ward are treated as students. And then some specialties such as first aid would need to be recognized as strenuous work as well as providing for ad hoc allowances and more flexibility in employment”.
Public health doesn’t have to do, not even with Pnrr money
Di Silverio: “The meeting with the minister was positive but the road is still long”
After two years of pressure and requests, the trade unions are once again received by the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci. “We cannot fail to notice the availability with respect to the problems of the world of public health – wrote the unions at the end of the meeting which took place on 16 December last -. We asked for the immediate establishment of a permanent technical table for a discussion on organizational problems, economic and planning aspects of the national health system.The requests already expressed in recent months by the inter-unions have been re-proposed: recruitment campaign, greater investments in the NHS, integrated and systemic reorganization of territorial and hospital services, in addition to the rapid marking of the CCNL, immediate signals – already in the financial – for the dignity of the professional, extension and stabilization of precarious workers. The first step is taken – concluded the trade unionists -. Let’s hope a period of confrontation begins through the facts. The time for waiting has now expired. We finally requested a scheduling of the next meetings”.
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Doctors alarm in Italy, fleeing above all from the “difficult” wards