Waiting lists: private individuals in Lombardy do not answer the call of the Single Cup

Waiting lists are neither a recent problem nor the product of contingent choices. They are the visible expression of a structurally fragile balance between demand for services, prescriptive appropriateness, productive capacity and organisation of services. Perhaps the part of the National Health Service that citizens experience the worst and with disappointment.

The decree on waiting lists aimed to make the regional CUP (Single Reservation Centre) more efficient, including, and above all, private facilities in order to guarantee compliance with waiting times and reduce the use of paid routes, such as intramoenia or pure private.

And yet, 18 months after its establishment and with almost 1.4 million euro for 2024 and over 2.6 million from 2025 allocated by Law No. 107 of 2024, it seems that nothing substantial has moved. Indeed, the regional administrations 'tried to do their homework' even before the issuing of the Dpcm 'Modalities and procedures for the exercise of the substitutive powers granted to the Body for verification and control on health care', issued last August with a 10-month delay with respect to the deadline set.

One of the most active was and is the Lombardy Region. However, despite the efforts of the councillor Bertolaso, the Single Reservation Centre is at a standstill, and in particular, negatively, private operators in the Lombardy health sector are not joining in. As of 10 March 2026, the Single Reservation Centre of the Lombardy health service was active in only 12 out of 27 Assts, in only two out of five public Irccs, and in eight private facilities out of approximately 400 facilities under contract with the regional health service, from the smallest to the largest. Apart from Poliambulanza di Brescia, all the other private facilities that have joined are small. More than three million (3,352,550) bookings were made through the new platform, but of these less than 150,000 (148,286) were booked in private centres. To date, the participation of private individuals in the Single Reservation Centre of the Lombardy Region is worth only 4.42% of total bookings. Of these, almost all concern the Poliambulanza of Brescia, activated in March 2025.

Even the timetable, which has been changed several times, clearly shows that private entities are postponing their entry into the Single Reservation Centre. Of the more than four hundred private realities contracted with the regional health service - thus excluding facilities that do not provide outpatient services or do not require a reservation - only eight are active, and while the largest realities are scheduled at this point to be active at the end of 2026, there is no news of the others. In the meantime, fortunately, some public realities are slowly entering the new system, not without difficulties for citizens and operators. The Asst Franciacorta, Garda, Civili di Brescia, Brianza, Fatebenefratelli-Sacco, Lecco, Lodi, Bergamo Est, Crema and Bergamo Ovest, as well as the Irccs Policlinico di Milano and Policlinico San Matteo di Pavia are active in the new Cup. The problem is private