Doctors reject healthcare federalism and citizens are eager for a return to centrality. These are the most evident conclusions underlined by Giacomo Milillo (photo) national secretary of Fimmg, at the end of the presentation of two surveys, one on family doctors, conducted by the Fimmg Study Center and the other on citizens, carried out by Doxa. In the sample of over 2,000 professionals, it emerged that 8 doctors out of 10 (82.2%) consider a reshaping of regional functions and responsibilities in health matters necessary, for 39% of the sample the intervention should be "mild", for 43% incisive and for the 12% the regional competences should be abolished altogether. A similar trend is also outlined in the sample of citizens interviewed by telephone, but with some regional variations: if for 7 out of 10 Italians living in the South the preference goes to a centralized national health system, 6 out of 10 citizens of the North prefer the regionalized system. «The answers collected are consistent» comments Milillo «there is a common concern and a shared judgment of the existence of critical issues, especially for citizens who live in the South. But the need to review the delegation system is consolidated in all it has not worked, with a trend towards a stronger role of the central government». Even in the judgment on the NHS, the two investigations converge: the 65% of general practitioners thinks that its sustainability is at risk and that it needs to be reorganised, also by redefining its role and professional function. For their part, the Italians, invited to give a vote on its quality, do not even manage to give the sufficiency (5.7), a vote that worsens in the South (4.9), recognizing the responsibility of the bad politics and corruption health problems. Politics too, therefore, is called into question, but even if the vast majority of doctors (94,1%) believe that the coalitions must express themselves clearly on how to deal with a possible reorganization of the NHS, «by all political forces running for the elections, when asked questions on these issues with this data in hand, one does not perceive a priority» underlines Milillo «what emerges from everyone is an attention to the conservation of universalism, to a different relationship between the Government and Regions and an openness to the introduction of supplementary but not replacement funds».
Simona Zazzetta – 25 January 2013 – DoctorNews33
