Government and regions: ahead with the reform of family doctors, here are the latest news

All participants have a stack of papers in front of them. It is the draft decree on which they are discussing: a mediation offered by the regions from Minister Schillaci's text.

The regions presented the contents and the proposal put on the table, and from there the debate began, with the minister calling for a 'calm discussion', reiterating the objective: a more modern healthcare system that is closer to the citizens.

A step forward after the rifts and tensions: some unions of family doctors have even proclaimed an agitation at the announcement of a decree to reform territorial medicine. The Fimmg, the main union of family doctors, spoke of a 'decree'.

While Schillaci, during the last question time on the subject, toned down the tones by opening up to dialogue with the trade unions and reiterating that 'we do not want to dismantle the figure of the family doctor', but the model must be changed, and that the 'reform will be discussed with the regions and trade unions'.

So the day of the meeting has arrived. A first face-to-face to return to cooperation.

The latest draft of the decree that Il Sole 24 Ore has been able to read already makes things clear in Article 2 by stating that 'general medicine and paediatrics of free choice are exercised primarily within the conventional relationship with the National Health Service', but then adding that 'the salaried employment relationship constitutes a residual and complementary channel, selective and programmed, that can be activated by the Regions and Autonomous Provinces to cover vacant appointments not assigned through the conventional channel, the structured territorial functions and the unmet care needs'.

Priority will therefore be given to Community homes, which will also be eligible for a quota 'equal to at least six hours per week for 48 weeks per year' for other non-employed doctors, a quota that may increase depending on the number of patients and regional needs.

Among the latest changes in the draft is also the definition of the age for registration as a paediatrician, which 'is included from the birth of the child until the completion of the sixteenth year of age', an age limit 'that can be raised to eighteen years through autonomous regional organisational determinations'.

The decree then establishes 'the school of specialisation in territorial, community and primary care medicine, as a specialised university course aimed at training doctors for territorial primary care' and pending the new school, those who have a specialisation in community and primary care medicine can also become employed family doctors; internal medicine; geriatrics; pneumology; metabolic medicine and diabetology; cardiology; emergency-urgency medicine; nephrology; rheumatology; endocrinology and diseases of the metabolism; cardiovascular diseases and oncology.

Recruitment through the dependency channel 'shall be arranged,' reads the draft, 'within the limits of the needs identified by the regional planning, the authorised quotas and the resources available under current legislation, with priority given to the Community Homes identified by the Region, the deficient areas and the other organisational models envisaged by Ministerial Decree 77.