Abandoning the logic of linear cuts, rethinking the spending review and very soon opening a consultation table with the Regions for the new Health Pact. These are some of the programmatic lines illustrated by the Minister of Health, Beatrice Lorenzin in a hearing held yesterday in the Chamber, to which actions to improve the transparency of healthcare activities must then be added. In particular, according to the minister, «further reductions in resources do not appear compatible with the sustainability of the health system, already put to the test by recent legislative measures. Even virtuous Regions could have serious problems if the resource recovery approach is not corrected", while it is "necessary to identify, together with the Regions, a further mapping of waste, especially in some contexts of the country where the very high costs of health services do not usually correspond to adequate levels of quality of services". Lorenzin also intends to meet the representatives of the Regions, to ensure that the new pact, defined as the "Health regulatory plan" represents the "starting point for putting together the needs of citizens and those imposed by the changed framework of needs perceived by the government, central and regional level". It will be an opportunity, he said, "to combine the rigor of public spending with the introduction of reform actions". Among the priorities indicated there is also the transparency necessary to "allow citizens to choose where to be treated, not only on the basis of their own knowledge, but also by checking directly on the Internet the quality levels of the treatments and services that each Italian hospital can offer". And referring to the European directive on cross-border healthcare, the minister underlined the commitment to propose "an innovative model of assistance capable of attracting European citizens who choose to be treated in Italy". Competitiveness with other international systems, he concluded, is important to avoid the emigration of patients and to attract foreign patients to Italy: "We have many excellences but we must fill the gaps still present between the regions".
5 June 2013 – DoctorNews33
