Important ruling of the Court of Auditors (Liguria section - sentence 281, 2006): overprescribing is not a professional fault. The doctor must therefore not answer for guilt as he does not make diagnostic or therapeutic errors, but a simple administrative irregularity. According to the Court of Auditors, therapeutic plans have the character of "indications". In this way, the attending physicians have a margin of discretion in the evaluation of the therapeutic guidelines coming from the competent health structures, which allows them to adopt the therapeutic solutions that best suit the case in question.
“We have a ruling that gives us hope for the future, reads a note from Snami (National Autonomous Italian Doctors Union). This lightens our daily paperwork and relieves us from the danger of always being accused and condemned. Obvious compliance with the law - continues the union spokesman - but we must also keep in mind what the daily working conditions of general practitioners are between the anvil of the criminal judge and the hammer of administrative sanctions.
We hope - concludes the note - that a dialogue can be opened with the competent authorities to simplify the health-administrative rules in order to streamline the work of doctors and the control of the competent bodies.
