The climate is very tense among Emilian family doctors. At a recent meeting of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg), strong criticism emerged of an initiative by the local health unit of Bologna, launched with the aim of reducing expenditure on medicines. The Ausl would have compiled a list of 120 doctors accused of spending too much on branded drugs and would have started organizing talks to discuss their prescription methods, inviting them to prefer the use of medicines with expired patents. The general practitioners did not like the decision of the healthcare company, which comes at an already critical and delicate moment. In order to obtain savings for Emilia Romagna healthcare of 260 million euros by 2013, negotiations are in fact underway with the Region and there are fears of cuts to the contractual indemnity of general practitioners. The latter point out that, for some years now, numerous actions have already been carried out with the aim of reducing pharmaceutical costs. It is precisely a document from the Emilia Romagna Region that provides figures on the decrease already achieved in relation to the costs of medicines: the Bologna Local Health Authority alone saved 14 and a half million euros last year, spending 11.16% less than in 2011. The consequences have fallen on the family budgets of families, which have increased their share in pharmaceutical expenditure; in 2012, the citizens of Bologna spent over 12 million euros, almost half a million more than the previous year. Furthermore, in August 2011, additional tickets were set up which led to the disbursement of 3 million and 600 thousand euros.
5 February 2013 – DoctorNews33
Doctors Region agreement to reorganize Tuscan healthcare
In recent days, the councilor for the right to health of the Tuscany Region Louis Brown has stipulated a series of agreements with the representatives of the doctors: yesterday it was the turn of the general practitioners. The agreement provides for the creation of territorial functional aggregations (Aft) and complex primary care units (Uccp), the progressive extension of initiative healthcare and the Chronic care model and the containment of waiting lists. These are the first agreements reached in Italy on the basis of the law passed by Minister Balduzzi on the subject of primary care and are part of a large project underway which aims to profoundly reorganize the health system of the Region. Aft and Uccp will be the pillars of the healthcare organization in the area, to which the project assigns an essential role. The Afts are made up of groups of doctors, of the same professionalism, who interface with the healthcare companies for the governance of primary care in the area and relations with hospitals; they will be entrusted with the protection of the health of the reference population, a total of around 30,000 inhabitants for each AFT. The continuity assist
