General practitioners with fewer patients than the maximum stipulated in the contract, chronic shortage of paediatricians and a decline in hospitals and beds. These are some of the trends that emerge from the statistical yearbook just published by the Ministry of Health, which refers to 2012.
In terms of territorial, semi-residential and residential assistance and rehabilitation assistance, however, the trends have increased. In terms of family doctors, the report records that on a national level, each general practitioner assists 1,156 adult residents, against a theoretical maximum of 1,500 established by the contract. It is much worse for paediatricians, who on average assist 879 children, while the contract it foresees 800, with the number of choices in Bolzano and in Veneto exceeding 1000.
The chronic shortage is also demonstrated by the average potential load for each pediatrician, calculated from the ratio between the number of doctors and that of resident children, which is 1017. «All Regions – explains the document – are characterized by a strong shortage of pediatricians in agreement with the NHS with the exception of Abruzzo, Sardinia and Sicily". Furthermore, according to the document, between 2008 and 2012 the number of public hospitals decreased from 645 to 578, while the number of beds for ordinary regimes decreased in the same period from about 178,000 to 165,000. Day hospital places have also decreased, from more than 21 thousand to less than 16 thousand.
«Increases - underlines the ministry - are instead highlighted by the trend of semi-residential territorial assistance (-0.3% for the public, +6% for accredited private individuals) of residential territorial assistance (+1.0% for the public, +5, 7% for the accredited private) and rehabilitation assistance (+2.1% for the public, +2.0% for the accredited private)".
