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.
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