Redefining objectives, priorities and tools of the regional healthcare system. This is the mission of the States General of Health of Lazio, inaugurated in the setting of the Sistine Lanes of the Santo Spirito in Sassia Complex. A two-day discussion, wanted by the Region, to “build healthcare together” with institutions, academia, professionals and citizens.
At the center of the debate were strategic issues for the entire territory: from the role of Rome as a fundamental hub to the need to strengthen the integration between hospitals and local medicine, strengthening the network of professionals and local services.
Schillaci: “FSN funding increases”
The Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, who spoke on the first day, sent a strong message: “None of us want to see any more cases of patients, even serious ones, who are denied an appointment due to closed diaries”. The Minister presented the Government’s recipe, which provides:
- Unique cup;
- extraordinary openings on weekends;
- guarantee of performance in the private sector at the expense of the NHS if the public sector has no place.
Schillaci claimed how the Meloni Government has “put health back at the center of the political agenda. This Government has reversed course”, including financing, with a National Health Fund “going from 125 billion in 2022 to almost 143 in 2026”. Resources, underlined Schillaci, invested above all in staff, “because without them there is no NHS that is worth it”. And with the Budget now being examined by Parliament “there are resources to hire doctors and nurses and funds for a further increase in specific allowances, in particular for nurses”.
Reduced waiting times
Also present was the President of the Lazio Region, Francesco Rocca, who outlined the two and a half years of his mandate and who recalled the need for a broad and transparent discussion to define the guidelines for the coming years.
In the last two and a half years, Lazio has gone from 2.5 million services provided through Recup in 2022 to around 6 million in 2025. We did this with a great sacrifice on the part of the staff and with maximum transparency, putting the native data online so that the ministry can control. However, Agenas is also needed (National Agency for Regional Health Services, ed.) take a step towards transparency, because if the data is not clear what happens is that our Region is humiliated. We do not use float lists and we show the data even in areas where we are in difficulty
On the topic of waiting lists, the president explains that between 2022 and 2025, in the Lazio Region, waiting times for patients who sought treatment in the emergency room were drastically reduced. In particular, for patients discharged after the visit, the time from the medical visit to discharge dropped to 339 minutes, reducing by approximately 1 and a half hours. For those who, however, needed to stay in hospital, the time between the visit and hospitalization dropped to 932 minutes with a decrease of 3 hours and 45 minutes.
Goodbye intramoenia? What is known
The President of the Region then focused on intramoenia, or healthcare provision outside normal working hours and for a fee, hoping for a national reform and expressing support for the minister should he decide to act in this direction.
On the subject, Schillaci had opened up in recent days to a suspension of the service, if public waiting times become unsustainable. The rationale behind the proposal is simple: free up medical resources for public service. By suspending intramoenia in the most critical cases, the intention is to ensure that doctors can dedicate more time and energy to clearing institutional waiting lists.
