68.5% of Italians declare themselves dissatisfied with the national health system. This is what emerges from a survey by the "Sintesi" study center presented today in Montecitorio at a press conference by the president of the Circle of Freedoms Michela Brambilla. The survey data shows that only 31.5% of Italians are satisfied with the functioning of public health. The most serious problems, for the Italians, are the length of waiting times, signaled by the 29.2% of the sample, staff shortages (12,8), spending by citizens (11,7), the poor quality of services (10). The cost of the services is judged as excessive by the 59% of the Italians; a 36% rates it adequate and the 5% low. But it is the new tickets for the emergency room and specialist visits that make Italians nervous. Faced with the need to pay for the emergency room visit for less serious cases (the so-called white code), the Italians who express their disagreement are 47%, to which is added a 14.4 which claims to disagree. The no to tickets for specialist visits was unanimous: 79% was against, only 21 were in favor. But faced with the question of whether, due to the new tax on visits, they will decide to switch to the private sector, only 26.9 say they are ready to make the leap, while 6.3 even say they will give up having a visit. “The new health care tickets – he said Michelle Brambilla – are scandalous, also because they unload the costs of out-of-control health care costs onto the shoulders of citizens». In this regard, he promised, the Circle of Freedoms "will check the budgets of health care companies, identify waste and name the inept managers who have to leave, regardless of the political cards they have in their pockets". At his side, a representation of trade unions and medical associations. Second Nirvana Nisi, of the Uil, "the tickets introduced by the government are unfair and must be abolished quickly". Sergio Betti, of the Cisl, has asked for the suspension of the new measures. Michele Poerio, from the coordination of hospital chiefs, launched a provocation: "Since the tickets are used to cover the out-of-control health costs of some regions, such as Lazio, Liguria, Sicily, Sardinia, Campania and Abruzzo, why aren't they only charged there?" Against all hospital fees ("but not the one on medicines, the only way to counter the tendency to buy medicines for the sole purpose of filling the cabinet at home") said the deputy secretary of the Italian doctors union Francis Medici. While Joseph Greco, representative of family doctors, expressed his "strong perplexity" about the tickets for the emergency room, inviting however not to consider the Italian public health as "all to be thrown away". From Il Giornale 26-01-07
