The Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, announced the operation of the new national monitoring system to combat the phenomenon of waiting lists in Italian public healthcare. Through a centralized digital platform, the ministry is now able to track the delivery times for each individual service and hospital facility in real time, intervening where critical issues arise. The objective of the measure, reiterated in a recent interview, is to guarantee the constitutional right to health by applying the rules that impose the unification of the Cups and the control over the services provided by doctors in the freelance regime.
The Government’s strategy aims to resolve regional disparities and precisely monitor the relationship between the performance of the National Health Service (NHS) and intramoenia activity. If the maximum times established by law are not respected, citizens have the right to obtain the service in an accredited private sector or intramoenia by paying only the ticket. Schillaci urged the general directors of healthcare companies to change pace, announcing the sending of NAS in the event of anomalies and the last resort of state replacement powers for non-compliant Regions.
Waiting lists: the role of the unified Cups
The quality of public health management changes. The Minister of Health aims for data transparency and technological integration. The tool is a new national monitoring platform that allows you to identify where expectations exceed tolerable limits.
According to ministerial data, the decisive challenge concerns the unification of the regional Cups, which must mandatorily integrate all the availability of both public and private structures. This process, already concluded in some local areas, aims to prevent the accredited private individual from selecting only the most profitable services, forcing him to contribute to the overall reduction of queues.
To deal with the backlog of requests, the national plan also encourages flexible organizational solutions, such as opening clinics in the evenings and on weekends. The Minister cited virtuous models where, thanks to incentivized remuneration for doctors and nurses, it was possible to provide hundreds of thousands of out-of-hours visits.
Right to performance: stop violations
A central point of Minister Schillaci’s intervention concerns the rebalancing between institutional activity and freelance activity (intramoenia). Current legislation establishes that the volume of paid services cannot exceed that guaranteed by the NHS.
Where there is an excess of intramoenia or, worse, the prohibited practice of closed diaries, the general managers have the obligation to intervene, going as far as suspending the private activity of the doctor or the structure.
Schillaci underlined how it is not tolerable that a service denied to the public becomes immediately available as soon as the paid channel is accessed.
Patient protection: news
To protect patients, the ministry intends to increase awareness of existing rights. He then spoke about news regarding the right to a ticket, reporting and controls by the NAS.
In detail, if the waiting times exceed the legal limits, the healthcare company must guarantee the examination in private or intramural at the cost of the ticket only. Furthermore, citizens can report waste or inefficiencies directly to the ministry, which will activate targeted checks with the Region concerned.
Finally, in the presence of persistent irregularities, targeted checks are envisaged by the Anti-adulteration and Health Unit to verify the correct management of the lists.
