Protest Order and trade unions: "With the old software you can not indicate the active ingredient." The Region, which was the first to switch to information technology, responds to do it by hand
by ALESSANDRA CORICA
A computer loophole. Which, however, risks throwing the Lombard health system into a tailspin: the law on the spending review passed by the government has introduced the obligation for family doctors to prescribe no longer a specific medicine, but only the active ingredient of the drug. A crackdown that aims to increase the use of generics and cut pharmaceutical spending. And that was triggered on Wednesday throughout Italy, including Lombardy. It is a pity, however, that the SISS software, the regional computer system that doctors must use to prescribe medicines, has not yet been updated.
And that for the 8,000 Lombard white coats it is not possible to issue prescriptions according to the new law: «The software – explains Roberto Carlo Rossi, president of the Order of Doctors of Milan, who is sending letters of protest to both the government and the Pirellone – does not recognize the prescription of the drug unless it specifies the brand: it is not possible to indicate only the active ingredient. To our grievances, we were told to resort to the old-fashioned prescription, with pen and paper: it is a pity, however, that Lombard doctors are obliged to make at least 80 percent of prescriptions online, under penalty of a 1.15 percent salary reduction. It is madness".
In 2010, Lombardy introduced - the first region in Italy - online prescriptions: family doctors were obliged to make 'red' prescriptions no longer by hand, but through the software of the regional health and social information service. The Siss, indeed. Objective: to control expenditure in real time and streamline bureaucracy, by directly sending the prescriptions to the local health authorities. In the intentions of the Pirellone, a great saving of time, paper and money, especially considering the large number of recipes - over 20 million - issued every year in Lombardy.
The spending review approved in Rome at the beginning of August introduced the 'prescription by active ingredient' to contain pharmaceutical expenditure. In practice, from now on the doctor will only have to specify the basic molecule of the medicine, but no longer the brand or manufacturer. «But this is not possible today - Rossi reiterates - It's a paradox: on the one hand, we are forced to use software to write recipes. On the other hand, however, the system has not been updated: what should we do now?».
The unions are on a war footing: «In these days – attacks Fiorenzo Corti, regional secretary of Fimmg, which brings together family doctors
