The National Health Service he is the great sick man of Italy, with almost 4.5 million patients That they give up to cure yourself due to the long ones waiting lists or gods costs prohibitive to access private healthcare. And the number of people forced to pay out of pocket for medical care has jumped +10.3% in a single year; in technical language this expense is defined “out of pocket“. And not all: the NHS also suffers from the chronic shortage of doctors and nurses with white coats who, among other things, move to the private sector after years of demotivation. Not to mention the country that is increasingly cut in half, with the patients of South fleeing towards North looking for better treatments. The picture outlined by it is merciless 7th Report of the Gimbe Foundation on the National Health Service which shows that in Italy public health spending shows a gap of 52.4 billion compared to the average of the European Union countries.
Towards the point of no return
In addition to clearly highlighting the shortcomings of the NHS, the Gimbe Report also suggests targeted treatments to improve the situation. Treatments that pass through a collaboration pact between political forces.
The data, he comments Nino Cartabellotta, president from the Gimbe Foundation“demonstrate that the stability of the National Health Service is close to point of no returnthat the founding principles of universalism, fairness and equality have now been betrayed and that the constitutional right to health protection is slowly crumbling, in particular for the weakest socio-economic groups, the elderly and the frail, those living in the South and in internal and disadvantaged areas”.
Out-of-pocket healthcare spending
In this state of affairs, Istat observed how in 2023 the expenditure incurred directly by citizens (out of pocket) for specialist visits and diagnostic tests increased by +10.3% compared to 2022. Italians spent 3.8 billion euros more than the previous year. The total figure thus rose to 40.6 billion euros.
Politics in the dock
“The serious sustainability crisis of the NHS is first and foremost the result of the defunding implemented in the last 15 years by all governmentswho have always seen health spending as a cost to be cut repeatedly and not a priority in which to invest constantly”, accuses the Report.
For example, in the pre-pandemic period from 2010 to 2019 the NHS was weakened by over 37 billion between cuts for the recovery of public finances and fewer resources allocated compared to planned levels. During the years of the pandemic, from 2020 to 2022, healthcare funds were increased by 11.6 billion, but they were practically absorbed by the emergency. In the years 2023-2024 the Health Fund increased by 8,653 million, but for the year 2023 1,400 million must be deducted from this figure to cover higher energy costs and for the year 2024 over 2,400 million were allocated to renewals staff contracts.
Prevention collapses, Pnnr late
The Gimbe Report highlights how in 2023 spending on prevention has descended from -18% (we are talking about 1,933 million less).
And the strengthening of territorial healthcare envisaged by the Pnrr marks “particularly marked delays in the South” in relation to the activation of community homes, community hospitals, territorial operations centers. As of 31 July 2024, 52% of intensive care beds and 50% of sub-intensive care beds had been created, with marked regional differences.
