GPs: the countdown to specialist training has begun

At the end of June, the regions launched calls for applications for admission to specialist training programmes in general practice. Each Italian region has a number of places available for the 2026 general practitioner intake, which varies considerably.

Regions with more places offer greater opportunities, but also face fierce competition. Therefore, the choice of which region to apply to must be carefully considered, taking into account both the availability of places and the level of competition.

For the specialist training programme in General Practice (2026–2029), the calls for applications published by the individual regions and autonomous provinces offer a total of around 2,200–2,300 places with a national scholarship.

As the recruitment process is managed at regional level, the exact number of posts is determined by adding together the individual local quotas, which are set according to the needs of the region.

By way of example, for the three-year period 2026–2029, the main regional allocations are as follows: Lombardy: 481 places; Campania: 240 places; Lazio: 200 places; Veneto: 191 places; Emilia-Romagna: 185 places.

For a full list of available positions in your region, you can view the specific details on the Ministry of Health’s portal dedicated to calls for applications .

The Specific Training Course in General Practice (MMG) is a compulsory three-year, full-time programme (4,800 hours), which provides a scholarship of approximately €11,600 per year. This amounts to approximately €967 gross per month, which, after tax, works out at around €700–750 per month. Unlike scholarships for postgraduate medical training programmes, the scholarship for General Practice is subject to IRPEF tax; it is, in fact, treated as income from equivalent employment.

The national call for applications has been published in the Official Gazette, and the deadline for submitting applications is 27 July 2026. The single national examination will take place on 21 October.

The trade unions claim that the regions should have published the bandi by February. The ministerial call for applications, which is only due to be issued once all regional publications have been finalised, will therefore be delayed by at least four or five months, with a real risk that the 2026–2029 programme will not start in 2026 but will be pushed back to 2027, given the generational turnover and retirements of which the regions are fully aware.

If we are truly to discuss urgent matters, whilst awaiting the long-awaited comprehensive measures that will fully establish general practice as a speciality and address the low take-up of the calls for applications currently being published, the union (Fimmg) has put forward a number of solutions, such as reviving the model of Calabria Decree (the legislature has already granted an exemption, on an exceptional basis, from the competitive examination for general practice: Decree-Law No. 35 of 30 April 2019 (converted into Law 60/2019), known as the ‘Calabria Decree’, provided for access to the specific training course via a reserved ranking list based on service records, without a multiple-choice test, for doctors with adequate experience in continuous care, local emergency services or locum work); direct admission where the number of applications is lower than the number of places available; the emergency acceleration of all timelines.