Waiting-lists decree becomes law

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 24 - A decree passed by Giorgia Meloni's government with measures seeking to cut national health system waiting lists became law on Wednesday as the Lower House gave it final approval by 171 votes against 122.
    Regional governments will be obliged to set up single 'CUP' booking centres for people to reserve appointments and monitoring of waiting lists will be assigned to the national agency for regional health services, AGENAS, with a health care control inspectorate and services offered at weekends if necessary.
    Medical services will also need to be guaranteed through the opening of new centres or through private clinics which have an agreement to provide public services under the new legislation.
    Health workers doing overtime to bring down the waiting lists will get a 20% increase in their hourly pay and tax for them will be brought down to 15% on the additional hours worked to cut waiting lists.
    The legislation also sets aside 100 million euros for clinics to bring in specialists in order to reduce the waiting lists.
    Under the new measures, regional governments will set health agency managers annual waiting-list targets and those who fail to meet them risk 12-month suspensions, according to the draft.
    Members of the opposition have slammed the measure, saying it fails to provide the resources necessary to tackle the problem while public healthcare is struggling under the weight of insufficient funding Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein on Wednesday addressed the Lower House prior to the vote, slamming the law as a step towards the privatization of national healthcare.
    "The PD will continue to defend healthcare from cuts and creeping privatization, we will do it in the name of those who conceived a universal healthcare system, of women like Tina Anselmi", who as health minister in 1978 set up the national healthcare service.
    Regional governments, which are in charge of organizing public health care in Italy, have expressed concern that the law will infringe on their powers by enabling central government to run checks regarding the waiting lists and then tell the regions to adopt solutions if problems are found .
    A survey published on Wednesday by Cittadinanzattiva revealed major disparities across the country in the time required to gain access to medical services.
    The waiting list for a sonogram ranged between a year and a half and 13 days, the survey revealed.
    A visit with a cardiologist could require a one-year-long wait in some areas of the country and under a week in others while a mammogram could be booked the next day or in six months, including in the same region, the study noted, stressing that disservices were reported across Italy. (ANSA).