Is the NHS overspending or waiting too long? In other words, is it too expensive for what or is Italian spending too high compared to international indicators?
First of all, it should be noted that Italy does not spend too much on health care. Our expenditure is in fact in line with the European average and, if anything, still appears to be lacking in dealing with new emergencies, such as chronicity, which require greater financial resources and greater integration with social services. At the same time, the WHO itself recognized us the value of offering a good level of health care even in the presence of funding that is certainly not very high.
Yet despite this, and your question confirms it, there is a widespread misconception that public health is a source of waste and overspending. It's not true and one of my tasks will be to demonstrate it also through a careful analysis of the effective suitability of the system with respect to precise result and cost-effectiveness indicators. Evidently, for a long time, it has been convenient for someone to present a spendthrift and wasteful face of Italian health care that is absolutely not true, at least in the vast majority of territorial realities.
First of all, it should be noted that Italy does not spend too much on health care. Our expenditure is in fact in line with the European average and, if anything, still appears to be lacking in dealing with new emergencies, such as chronicity, which require greater financial resources and greater integration with social services. At the same time, the WHO itself recognized us the value of offering a good level of health care even in the presence of funding that is certainly not very high.
Yet despite this, and your question confirms it, there is a widespread misconception that public health is a source of waste and overspending. It's not true and one of my tasks will be to demonstrate it also through a careful analysis of the effective suitability of the system with respect to precise result and cost-effectiveness indicators. Evidently, for a long time, it has been convenient for someone to present a spendthrift and wasteful face of Italian health care that is absolutely not true, at least in the vast majority of territorial realities.
Efficiency problems: it is common experience that it is much easier to obtain a paid service, even in public facilities, than those provided at the expense of the NHS. By keeping the two channels open, isn't there the risk of always seeing the public one suffer? What is the balance sheet of the intramoenia freelance activity?
With the rule included in the decree law on competitiveness being examined by Parliament in recent weeks, we have given a decisive signal for a turning point in the question of intramoenia. The right to the free profession of the doctor is not discussed, but it must finally be clarified that the ordinary activity within public structures is the primary mission of doctors and healthcare companies of the NHS. If well governed and regulated and, above all, if adequately supervised, the free profession can represent an opportunity for public health and for the citizen. Otherwise it becomes something else and the risk of the two open channels is highlighted. We will not tolerate this.
With the rule included in the decree law on competitiveness being examined by Parliament in recent weeks, we have given a decisive signal for a turning point in the question of intramoenia. The right to the free profession of the doctor is not discussed, but it must finally be clarified that the ordinary activity within public structures is the primary mission of doctors and healthcare companies of the NHS. If well governed and regulated and, above all, if adequately supervised, the free profession can represent an opportunity for public health and for the citizen. Otherwise it becomes something else and the risk of the two open channels is highlighted. We will not tolerate this.
Still on the efficiency of the system, how much does a push towards consumerism weigh and also a general intolerance of the user? An economist said that the citizen is ready to travel kilometers to pay less for biscuits at the discount store but hardly agrees to travel for a diagnostic investigation…
I don't think it's a matter of kilometres. The citizen already does too many today to obtain a service outside the hospital. My great legislative challenge is precisely that of placing the citizen in a position to be the protagonist of the health system through a profound reorganization of primary care medicine. To do this, I thought about the need to give a "home", even physical and tangible, to this sector and I called it the "Home of health" to mean the place to concentrate experiences, skills, services and coordination of all those professional forces , techniques and logistics today dispersed throughout the territory and difficult to "visible" and reachable by the citizen. Today it is the citizen, outside the hospital, who must "seek" the appropriate service, it is not the health service that meets his needs. Instead, with the Casa della Salute I intend to give a precise identity to all local medicine in connection and network with the hospital
I don't think it's a matter of kilometres. The citizen already does too many today to obtain a service outside the hospital. My great legislative challenge is precisely that of placing the citizen in a position to be the protagonist of the health system through a profound reorganization of primary care medicine. To do this, I thought about the need to give a "home", even physical and tangible, to this sector and I called it the "Home of health" to mean the place to concentrate experiences, skills, services and coordination of all those professional forces , techniques and logistics today dispersed throughout the territory and difficult to "visible" and reachable by the citizen. Today it is the citizen, outside the hospital, who must "seek" the appropriate service, it is not the health service that meets his needs. Instead, with the Casa della Salute I intend to give a precise identity to all local medicine in connection and network with the hospital
