Medicines and medical tests: Italians go to the doctor and then decide for themselves

He decides – or pretends to decide – the tests to undergo and the medicines to take. It is the Italian patient who emerges from a survey by Altroconsumo in collaboration with the Mario Negri Institute after interviews with a thousand people between the ages of 30 and 74.

We even get to change doctors

According to the research, it was the 93% who asked for a drug or a diagnostic test and in 61% the request was refused by the doctor. But not all of them resigned because the 19% of the patients insisted and the 6% went to another doctor.

The 20% does not follow the prescriptions

Even the prescriptions are not observed, at least by 20% of the people interviewed, who prefer to do it yourself, ignoring the health recommendations. Finally in 36% of the cases useless examinations were prescribed.

“Waste for 10 billion”

“Sometimes tests are done in the name of 'defensive medicine',” he said Paul Martinello, president of the Altroconsumo foundation. However, this "generates wastage of public money of 10 billion euros, about 10% of health expenditure, in a system already tested by cuts, inefficiencies and cases of corruption".

Consumatrici – 14/06/2016

Research Altroconsumo Mario Negri Institute

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