(AGI) - Santa Margherita di Pula (CA), Oct. 16 - Italian family doctors are getting older: thanks to the "funnel" of university training, which effectively blocks access to the profession for many young people, white coats under the age of 40 can really be counted on the fingers of one hand: throughout the country, out of 43,985 general practitioners, the under 40s are just 243, equal to one in 200 (0.5 percent of the total). With the concrete risk, within 8-10 years, of having serious generational turnover problems, with a consequent shortage of doctors. These are the data provided by Enpam, the social security institution for doctors, and disseminated during the national congress of the federation of family doctors (Fimmg) in Santa Margherita di Pula. According to these data, in addition to the white coat, family doctors also have white hair: those between 28 and 30 years old are just four in all of Italy, those between 31 and 35 years old are 49, and between 36 and 40 they are 190. In all, 243 under 40, 'white flies' in a profession that is aging. Things aren't much better for doctors between the ages of 41 and 45, who are 1,729, just 3.93 percent of the total. The most represented age groups are 46-50 year olds (6,277, 14.27 per cent) and above all 51-55 year olds (15,108, 34.35 per cent) and 56-60 year olds (15,119, 34.37 per cent). But the 61-65 year-olds (4,143, 9.42 per cent) and the 66-70 year-olds (1,366, 3.11 per cent) are also numerous (at least much more than their younger colleagues). 'The majority of family doctors are of an advanced age – admits Giacomo Milillo, national secretary of Fimmg – mainly due to the university which does not guarantee replacement. It creates a funnel at the graduate school level.' On the other hand, many universities opt to invest more in training for specialist disciplines than in general medicine, and the consequence is an aging of the profession without adequate generational turnover. 'On the turnover – confirms Milillo – there is the risk that half of the doctors will leave in ten years without the other half entering'. We could feel the effects of this scarce turnover in less than ten years, even if even fewer doctors could be enough with the new organization of primary care. In any case, the problem exists, targeted programming is needed.
AGI Salute – Friday October 16th 2009
