There is concern among the Piedmontese owners about the Region's projects on CAPs, the primary care centers in which family doctors, specialists, multi-professional teams and basic diagnostic services would be grouped. To listen to the indications that the Councilor for Health, Paul Monferino, he provided to Minister Balduzzi last week, the aim is to open a zip code in each local health authority by the end of the year. But the ultimate goal is to have at least one Center per district.
On paper, these facilities should relieve hospitals and emergency rooms from improper access and strengthen the local area's ability to take on medium-intensity care responsibilities. But for pharmacies the CAPs reawaken the fears already raised in their time by the UTAPs. And that's not all: in the documents of the councilorship, in fact, there are passages that could suggest an involvement of the CAPs also in direct distribution, even as dispensing points in the area. For preventive purposes, in recent weeks Federfarma Piemonte had sent a letter to the Region in which explanations were requested on the point and legal appeals were threatened. "The Region has replied to us with reassurances" explains the president of the regional union, Maximum Mana "but before deciding whether to abandon the dispute or to continue, we want an opinion from our lawyers".
Meanwhile, concerns remain regarding the pharmacy of services: "These CAPs could end up providing the same first-level diagnostic services we aim for" continues Mana "it is obvious that there is no place in the area for two different subjects". And then there is the centralization of medical studies, another nightmare that had already arisen at the time of the Utap: «The small towns and extra-urban areas would be stripped of guards» observes Mana «I wonder where the advantage lies for the patients. We asked the Region for explanations on these points too, but the answers were elusive".
20 July 2012 – Pharmacist33
Primary care, the ministerial draft of the new article 8
Compulsory adherence to associative forms and health information systems; unique access and role; compensation restructuring; regionally variable ceilings of choice. These are the main novelties of what should be the new article 8 of Legislative Decree 502/92, whose objective at the moment would remain to include the text in a decree to be presented to the Council of Ministers by the end of the month.
