Rome, 18 May - Provide for the Ministry of Health a national commission for the periodic updating of the health professions. It is the proposal put forward by an amendment of the Pd to the health bill (which also contains rules on drug testing), signed by Donata Lenzi (in the picture), group leader in the Social Affairs Committee in the Chamber.
The commission, reports an agency launch Public policy, will have to be nominated and chaired by the Minister of Health and will be composed of the director of the General Directorate of health professions and human resources of the National Health Service, the director of the General Directorate of medical devices and the pharmaceutical service and ten qualified experts, of which four designated by the Minister of Health, one by the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) and five by the Conference of Regions.
Lenzi's proposal envisages that, at the request of the president, representatives of the Superior Health Council, scientific societies, organizations representing the most representative health professions at national level and external experts competent in the specific subjects covered may also participate in the meetings of the commission .
Related News: ddl No. 3868 for the reorganization of the health professions
Intervention in the Commission:donated by LENTI (PD) notes that the law n. 42 of 1999 presents some gaps and observes that, similarly to the provisions for updating the LEAs, it would be advisable to provide for a body which can, at least every two years, recognize the new health professions without the need for legislative intervention ad hoc. He points out that this body could also be useful for sanctioning the passing of some professional figures, also in order to avoid that some students find themselves following courses of study without real outlets in the world of work. [p. 109]
Amendment:
Article 3-BIS.
(Establishment of the area of social and health professions).
1. For an overall protection of health understood as a state of physical, mental and social well-being in application of article 6 of the Agreement n. 82/CSR of 10 July 2014 concerning the new Pact for Health, the area of social and health professions is established, according to the provisions of article 3-octies of the legislative decree n. 502 of 1992.
2. In implementation of paragraph 1, the Government is delegated to identify the necessary professional profiles through one or more agreements, sanctioned in the Permanent Conference for relations between the State, the regions and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, pursuant to article 4 of the legislative decree 28 August 1997, n. 281, and implemented with decrees of the President of the Republic, following a resolution by the Council of Ministers. The identification of the new social and health professional profiles whose exercise must be recognized throughout the national territory, takes place, in consideration of the needs connected to the health objectives envisaged in the Health Pact between the State and the Regions and in the regional health and social health plans, which they do not find correspondence in already recognized professions.
3. The agreements referred to in paragraph 1 identify the scope of activity of the socio-medical professional profiles, defining the characterizing functions avoiding fragmentation and overlapping with the already recognized professions or with their specializations.
4. With a subsequent agreement stipulated in the Permanent Conference for relations between the State, the regions and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, the criteria are established for the recognition of equivalent qualifications for the purpose of exercising the professional profiles referred to in previous paragraphs. By decree of the Minister of Education, University and Research, in agreement with the Minister of Health, having consulted the competent parliamentary Commissions and acquired the opinion of the National University Council and the Superior Health Council, the didactic order of training is defined of health and social professional profiles.
5. The pre-existing professional profiles of health and social worker, of the professions of social worker, sociologist and professional educator are included in the professional area of this article, modifying their previous normative collocation.
HEALTHCARE PROFESSION ALSO FOR ISF?
Faced with increasingly frequent and unfortunate episodes of medical malpractice, it is now easy for the collective imagination to identify the figure of the drug sales rep as the demon of evil and profit!
It is therefore easy to ignore the huge number of honest and correct professionals, easy for users to lump all the herbs together!
On the other hand, it is difficult for us informants, light years away from the golden worlds of self-styled colleagues, to bow our heads once again in the face of so much corruption, having as our only weapon that of "honesty and conscience" which by now few trust!
The world has changed! The SSN certainly cannot afford to tolerate episodes of corruption that alter "healthy" competition in the pharmaceutical sector (which must be based on quality and price) 
increasing squandering and therefore, ultimately. they harm all of us, as citizens and potential users of the health service.
Information on the drug must necessarily have the objective of cultural growth in healthcare professionals and in the patient, but such a need requires a continuous commitment to update. (In)training also requires specific professionals who have the mission of continuously providing data and updates useful for clinical practice. The efficiency of these figures, who can only be Pharmaceutical Representatives, obviously cannot be measured on the basis of the number of drugs that are sold but should be measured on the degree of competence, updating and useful information transmitted to the prescriber and/or healthcare worker.
It could be useful to develop models that help define the minimum requirements necessary to obtain (in)information with authoritative content, which can be easily updated and which allows for a close link with clinical practice.
Despite the limitations of the information provided by companies, it must be recognized that the pharmaceutical industry has made an almost absolute contribution to medical updating in recent years, making up for a macroscopic lack of initiatives on the part of the regions, health and hospital they have adequate funds and do not know how to profitably manage those available.
According to the law, industries have not only financed the organization and participation in their own congresses, but also in congresses of national and international scientific societies, and have not only supplied doctors with propaganda material of their own production, but also scientific material ( texts, treatises, reviews, articles, CD-Roms) of unsuspected origin. However, the imbalance between the poverty of public initiatives and the rich and varied offer of attractive proposals from the pharmaceutical industries could expose doctors to partial, interested and sometimes not useful training for the National Health Service (SSN). In fact, the double mandate of respecting shareholder expectations (market) with commitments to work for the common good (public health) is a premise on which it is difficult to find a correct balance.
However, the balance can be achieved with the multiple information of several pharmaceutical companies. Just as in economics competition lowers prices and increases quality, the multiplicity of information leads to greater overall objectivity. It is therefore necessary to start from a new level, assuring the industry the right to correct information on its products, the fact remains that NHS staff can be guaranteed an update and independent training that meets the needs of health and hospital companies. The fulcrum around which the new legislation will have to revolve is therefore that of separating scientific information from propaganda, so that the latter is easily distinguishable and regards products of free sale in order to distinguish cultural initiatives from commercial ones.
No one can question the fact that healthcare personnel deserve and need autonomous and independent updating. However, the various initiatives of the Ministry do not in themselves solve the problem of information on medicines. In recent years, efforts have been made to find a better definition of the pathways that have independent drug information as their purpose. Many of the problems listed above will have a greater probability of resolution when it becomes clear that the ethics of information on the drug is linked to the growth of specific professionals, the ISFs.
In this sense, an effort is needed in the public and private sector which involves all operators in the sector, bearing in mind that this type of service must be understood as part of a more comprehensive investment which responds to the patient's right to care. And the patient's interest may coincide with the commercial interest of the pharmaceutical company.
In recent years we have witnessed abuses of all kinds and we have ascertained that neither the Farmindustria Code of Conduct nor AIFA have controlled or sanctioned anything.
An ISF figure outlined in this way needs rigorous control that can only be exercised by a specific person professional order placed "under the high supervision of the Ministry of Health" which on the one hand protects the Members and on the other, precisely through the defense of professionalism, protects the community.
Fedaiisf editorial staff – May 18, 2017
