Family doctors, two-stage reform: light decree for dependency now

The reform of family doctors will be carried out in two stages: a light decree law for the most urgent measures such as the one needed to cover the shortages in the new Community Homes with salaried doctors and no longer only in agreement as today, and then a bill for the other measures starting with the new methods of remuneration for the white coats to which millions of Italians turn every day.

The reform wanted by Health Minister Schillaci takes a new step forward after the first technical meetings with the regions and also receives the go-ahead from Prime Minister Meloni, who met with Schillaci and the governor of Lazio Francesco Rocca to listen to the reform proposal, recommending a responsible confrontation with the regions. And it is precisely the health councillors who have started working on the draft. This work should be completed in the coming days - a meeting with the doctors' unions is also in the pipeline - before it reaches the Council of Ministers, an appointment that is likely to be made at the end of the month. As mentioned, the reform focuses on a dual channel: the one that maintains the current convention as the main channel with the freelance family doctors, and the new one of dependency that the Regions will be able to use to cover the shortages at the territorial level and especially in the more than one thousand Community Homes that must open by June.

In the decree will go the regulation of the new dependency channel, which will also concern doctors with a specialisation in geriatrics or internal medicine, the possible hourly debt for all family doctors (at least six hours a week in a community house) and the extension until the age of 18 for paediatric patients. In the ordinary law - which could also end up in a dead end - the new remuneration of family doctors (no longer based on the number of patients but on the basis of objectives) and most probably the reform of training, which should become university-based. In the meantime, tension remains high over the growing pharmaceutical expenditure, with Minister Schillaci reportedly not liking the explanations of the Aifa top management, which still remains in the crosshairs.