Used to unlock medical turnover and innovative drugs.
(by Claudia Coletta) (ANSA) - ROME, FEBRUARY 10 - Next year could be the lucky year to heal some "wounds" in the Italian health sector: surprisingly, an extra "treasure" of 1.5 billion euros appears for 2017 that can be used "to unblock the turnover of doctors and for innovative medicines".
The Minister of Health, Beatrice Lorenzin, explained to ANSA how it was formed: "we made some calculations with the State Accounting Office, they are still unofficial figures, but if nothing dramatic happens to the Italian economy, we have al net of the budget already decided in the Stability for 2017 about 1.5 billion more to spend. Resources that could be used to unblock the turnover and for innovative drugs”.
The replies of the trade unions and associations were not long in coming, such as the Codacons which asks that the treasury be used "first of all to increase the number of beds and compensate for the absurd linear cuts in the health sector made in recent years". The secretary of Fp Cgil Medici, Massimo Cozza, on the other hand hopes that the announcement "is not yet another denial by the facts, as has already happened in recent years". This is echoed by Costantino Troise, secretary of Anaao Assomed, also worried that it could be "punctually denied by the facts", then recalling what happened with the 2016 health fund, "which was supposed to be 115 billion according to the health pact and then at the end it has reached 111 billion”.
Moreover, it is precisely on these issues that the doctors have declared a strike for 17 and 18 March, and what Lorenzin has announced could get a negotiation back in motion to prevent the abstention of the white coats.
Less critical Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Conference of Regions: "the minister's words would be excellent news, I appreciated the Government's work on the Stability Law because there has been an increase in resources for the current year, given that from 109.7 billion we have gone to 111 and mathematics cannot be an opinion”.
The announcement of the treasure is added to other important issues on the health minister's agenda for the next few days. It begins tomorrow with a meeting for Pharmaceutical Governance in the presence of Lorenzin as well as Economy Minister Padoan. The representatives of the Regions and of the Italian Medicines Agency will sit at the table. The theme of the meeting will be not only the expenditure ceiling for pharmaceuticals but as many ceilings as the macro-areas of care: oncology, the cardiovascular sector, infectious and autoimmune diseases. Another hot topic is the decree "cut exams". Lorenzin asked the unions of general practitioners and the Regions for a discussion on the critical issues that are characterizing the debut of the provision on appropriateness: "I convened the union associations of general practitioners and the Regions on Friday 12 to discuss appropriateness of the prescriptions, the objective of the meeting is to reduce waste and provide correct assistance”.
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