Rationing. As for food in times of war. The administrators of hospitals and local health authorities will end up doing this to face the cuts in health provided for by the July maneuver. In all, 6.5 billion less in three-year funding, according to calculations by the regions. Now they will have to find a way to make ends meet. Under penalty of new debts, with consequent commissioning of the juntas. And then, if you need 100, you'll have to buy 80 or even less. And so, with a stroke of the pen to the specifications, fewer medical aids (syringes, gauze, reagents, sterile material, spare parts for equipment) will be purchased than those needed to run a hospital. And the same must be done for drugs and medical tests. Fewer prescriptions, selection of patients (with less urgent cases, postponements: of waiting lists. Apparently not sensational cuts and which the aim is to get the employees to digest in the name of efficiency and cutting out the superfluous. It is a pity that, in a few months, such a policy will put the very safety and quality of care at serious risk. A risk that the Government is actually calculating, considering an even more drastic alternative. Completely eliminating some healthcare services that have been free up to now. Pathology by pathology This is the task entrusted to a working group based in the former Ministry of Health which is already working on a new list of NHS services. Much less extensive. With a careful and still top secret selection. Which, however, from what has been learned, could cut many services and therapies. Even for important pathologies for which a crackdown on what has been guaranteed up to now by the ASL cannot be excluded, especially on the screening front.
L'Espresso of 22/08/2008, article by CESARE FASSARI N. 34 – 28 AUGUST 2008 p. 136
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