660 community houses in operation, only 46 with all services

There are 660 Community Homes open in Italy out of the 1723 planned by the Regions and only 41 are in the South, none in Abruzzo, Basilicata and Campania (with the exception of Bolzano in the North). But the most clamorous thing is that of the active ones only 46 provide all the services that they are supposed to provide by law to citizens. What is more, only 172 of these facilities, which are supposed to help alleviate the queues in emergency rooms, have at least one doctor present during the 12 hours they are open (24 hours in the larger ones), ready to examine patients, and only 162 have a nurse's surgery in the same time range to provide medication or other interventions when needed. Finally, there are still 172 Community Homes with all services active, apart from the stable presence of doctors and nurses. Around these numbers revolves the pitiless picture taken by the latest Agenas report, not even a year away from the goal of the NRP scheduled for June 2026 on the reorganisation of care on the territory, which invests 2 billion on these facilities alone. The monitoring, which reports the data to the first half of this year, certifies two things: the first is the delay, especially in the South, in the opening of these maxi-ambulatories in the territory, which were born because during the Covid it was realised that we were lacking them, a delay that could be made up with a miraculous final rush, also because the minimum target set by the EU in June next year in order not to request the funds back is 1038 facilities. The second is that even if all 1,723 facilities planned by the regions were to be opened in the near future, it would be difficult for them to have the necessary personnel to provide all the services they are supposed to provide: from blood samples to vaccinations, from home care to service bookings and integration with social services, but above all, visits also with telemedicine and the first diagnostic examinations (such as ultrasound scans, spirometry, etc.) that would dispose of hospital admissions. A flop weighed down by the failure to reform the family doctors who would like to be well present in these facilities (see article opposite) and the Regions' delays in recruiting despite the funds allocated by the Ministry of Health in the last budget law..

But let us take a look at the numbers: in the lead in the activation of a Community House (Cdc) with at least one active service is Valle d'Aosta (all four Cdc programmed already activated) out of 4 Friuli Venezia Giulia with 30 active Cdc out of 32 programmed, Veneto with 63 out of 99, Emilia Romagna (140 Cdc out of 187), Lombardy with 142 out of 204, Tuscany with 70 out of 157. While Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, and Bolzano, as mentioned, still have zero structures, and do little better in Calabria (2 out of 63 Cdc), Molise (2 out of 13), Apulia (1 out of 123), Sardinia (27 out of 80), and Sicily (9 out of 161). When we look at personnel in terms of medical and nursing presence according to the provisions of Ministerial Decree 77, however, the music changes for everyone, or almost everyone: as many as nine regions fail to hit the target with zero facilities, and they are Abruzzo. Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Fiulia Venezia-Giulia, Bolzano, Trento, Puglia and Sardinia. A discouraging picture, far from the standard parameter: medical presence 24 hours a day for 7 days a week in the 'hub' Cdc and at least 12 hours a day for 6 days a week in the 'spoke' Cdc. While nurses are required at least 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in the hub CoCs and at least 12 hours a day (6 days a week) in the spoke CoCs. The Region that does best in this respect is Lombardy, with 12 community homes complete with everything, out of the 204 that it has planned. It is followed by Emilia Romagna (8 fully staffed Cdc out of the 187 planned) and Tuscany (7 out of 157), and then Lazio with 5 fully staffed community homes with doctors and nurses, but again out of 146 in the pipeline.