The Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci was interviewed about public health, in particular about the lists and waiting times for tests and visits. The data shows how the timing has improved, even if the improvement is minimal, almost imperceptible. There is not an Italian who does not find it difficult to access public healthcare in a short time.
The data known thanks to the national waiting list platform, active since June, were analyzed and published by the Luca Coscioni Association. They tell us that improvements are so slow that it would take 40 years to reach the objectives set by law.
The delay in healthcare: waiting lists are still too long
The Agenas platform is starting to show a positive trend, but still today only 75% of urgent services are within the timeframe. The less urgent ones are always late. For minister Orazio Schillaci, however, the responsibility lies with those who apply the rules on waiting lists. It is the Regions that manage healthcare and for a long time they prevented a single platform from collecting the data of bookings for tests and visits, both those through the National Health Service and those intra-moenia. The latter would have increased by 10%.
According to the minister, free profession is a right, but it must not come before public service. He then seems to make a promise:
The problem arises when there are more paid services than in the NHS, when the public wait is six months and the intramoenia is two weeks. If the imbalance denies the right to treatment, a temporary suspension is likely to be envisaged. The pact is clear: first the public, then the private partner. Where we see critical issues, we intervene to ensure fairness.
Remember that in many regions the rule that allows citizens to turn to the private sector for free if they do not obtain services within the due time applies. This is a useful and refinanced tool, but the priority should be to reorganize the public offering.
In Piedmont, remember, to shorten waiting times, indications have been given to carry out tests and visits at unconventional times such as pre-holidays, holidays and evenings. The data says that it works: 199,334 services were carried out in these unconventional slots.
Agenas data read by Crivellini
According to Marcello Crivellini, professor of analysis and organization of health systems at the Polytechnic of Milan, the platform should guarantee transparency, but it is not so easy to read and interpret.
The expert does it for us and we discover that from July to September just over 25 million tests were booked. Of these, 10 million were accepted and placed on the waiting list according to the time limits established by law, while almost 15 million were rejected. In fact, patients prefer to wait a long time, beyond the limits indicated by the prescription, while others turn to private facilities and only a smaller part gives up on the exam.
In the first nine months of the year, 58.1% of exams were carried out beyond the times required by law, with only 41.9% respecting the times. For visits it is even worse, with 64.2% not respecting the times. From June to today, waiting times have improved, but only by 0.2%. Continuing like this, they would be necessary 4o years before compliance with waiting times for exams occurs.
A healthy aging society: the paradigm shift
The Minister of Health is also questioned on the topic of the elderly. In Italy there are 4.6 million people over 80 and in 15 years the number of centenarians has doubled, reaching 23,500. As the journalist points out, we are a country of great old men. There is therefore a need for healthcare that takes these data into account, without weighing too much on the state coffers.
Schillaci jokes that if there are all these centenarians it is because “our National Health Service is doing something good”. OECD data have recently been published which demonstrate how Italy is the second nation in the world for longevity, even in the face of reduced spending per inhabitant compared to other countries analysed.
The point, as the Minister of Health points out, is not so much living more, but living better. He thus speaks of “active ageing”, but to achieve this, a paradigm shift is needed. According to the minister, fewer hospitals and more presence in the area, such as community houses, are needed.
To reach the non-self-sufficient elderly person, medical care is needed, but also care. This is why the minister talks about strengthening integrated home care, widespread throughout the territory and also more sustainable.
More funds for nurses in the budget
It is also true that family caregivers are an invisible pillar of the welfare system and Italy, with law 104 which provides for up to two years of paid leave, supports them. Yet even today, caregivers find it difficult to sustain their lives, work and care activities. 41% of these end up getting sick. The minister replied that these are real data and that for this reason one objective is to create a network that supports caregivers and relieves them at least of healthcare tasks. Community houses, community hospitals and a strengthened ADI would be useful for this.
To make public health accessible throughout the country, however, professionals are needed, especially nurses. The 2026 budget provides for 450 million euros for new hires in healthcare, in particular 6300 nurses and 1000 new doctors. A series of increases and benefits are also planned to improve working conditions, training and generally make healthcare professions more attractive.
The serious problem of the absence of nurses is, as Schillaci reminds us, the real emergency. “In the immediate future we will also draw from abroad with bilateral protocols, but the theme is to make the profession attractive”. Even with a favorable measure, human capital is not created by law and must be cultivated: this is why the focus is on specialized university training and attractive salaries with contractual increases.
