A first important meeting was held on Monday 27 February between a delegation of the Provincial Association of Whistleblowers (AIISF) and the Councilor for Welfare and Health of the Municipality of Bologna.
In the municipal seat Liber Paradisus, Councilor Luca Rizzo Nervo received the President of the AIISF section of Bologna Alberto Bonomo, the vice-president Vita Verardi, the councilor Lorenzo D'Arpa and Roberto Rossi for News Fedaiisf.
The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere. President Bonomo has the task of describing the laws, regulations and relationships within which the role of Scientific Representative operates. Legislative Decree 219 of 2006 delegates scientific information to pharmaceutical companies and the rep should depend on a single company, but the reality offers an extremely varied and not always coherent panorama of contracts and positions.
The recent cases of pharmaceutical companies that cut jobs, especially among informants, the latest in order of time that of the Bologna-based Alfasigma, cannot go unnoticed and are also causing concern in the city administration.
It was underlined that AIISF is not a trade union or a political organization but a (professional) association strongly oriented towards exercising an ethical guarantee function which has led, in past years, the national President Antonio Mazzarella to participate in the discussion on the Sunshine Act.
Even Councilor Rizzo Nervo as a parliamentarian of the last legislature took part in the work of the Social Affairs Commission from which the Sunshine Act was born, a document that has greatly contributed to the greater transparency of relations between manufacturing companies and subjects active in the health sector.
The technical table on Scientific Information promoted by the Emilia Romagna Region, in which we participated as an Association, produced a resolution in 2020 that underlines the relevance of Scientific Information for health purposes and at the same time effectively recognized a register of the profession.
As Councilor Rizzo Nervo himself stated, while once the only health referent was the doctor alone, today several professional figures contribute to satisfying the patient's growing need for health.
A Metropolitan Territorial Social and Health Conference chaired by Mayor Matteo Lepore is already active in Bologna, while at national level a Council of Health Professions has been set up by the Ministry of Health which brings together doctors, pharmacists, nurses, biologists, radiology technicians and chemical-physicists , psychologists and veterinarians to encourage "dialogue between professions, bring them closer to institutional decision-makers to collaborate in improving the quality of citizens' assistance".
It was therefore shared with the Councilor that placing Scientific Representatives alongside the other health professions would also allow the common issues to be brought to a greater level of attention from a territorial perspective.
Vice-President Vita Verardi has promised the Councilor to inform him about the initiatives we are going to implement in the coming months in order to follow up on this first meeting.
Dr. Rizzo Nervo kindly thanked us for the time we dedicated to him. Thanks gladly returned.
Related articles:
Quotidiano Sanità - Consultation of the health professions - 8 Jan 2020
