The Ministry of Health has released the annual report on the state of the National Health Service with regards to Leathat is, the Essential levels of carethose fundamental services that must be guaranteed in all Italian facilities. The ministerial report paints a picture of an Italy cut in two, with a North that shines for Healthcare and a South that struggles, but with some significant exceptions.
The ministerial “report cards” for the year 2022 fail, or at least postpone, 8 regions, almost all in the South, which do not reach the essential levels of assistance in at least one of the three areas among which “hospital”, “territorial health” And “prevention systems”. There are 8 regions in which 16 million people live, a number equal to 27% of the entire population.
Instead, 13 regions and autonomous provinces were promoted, among which Veneto, Emilia, Tuscany and the Province of Trento stand out.
The indicators
The Ministry’s Guarantee System monitors the services offered by the Regions based on 88 indicators. 22 of them are considered core, that is, those of fundamental importance.
These include, for example, vaccination coverage among children, the spread of cancer screening, the ability of hospitals to operate on people with a fractured femur within 2 days, the response capacity of 118 operators in case of emergency, and so on.
The promoted regions
The response capacity of the various health facilities is translated into a score. Each territorial reality must exceed the minimum threshold of 60 points. They obtained at least 60 points the following regions:
- Piedmont;
- Lombardy;
- Autonomous Province of Trento;
- Veneto;
- Friuli Venezia Giulia;
- Liguria;
- Emilia Romagna;
- Tuscany;
- Umbria;
- Marches;
- Lazio;
- Puglia;
- Basilicata.
The regions that failed and those that were sent back
The tail light as far as the Lea is concerned is the Valle d’Aostawhich “presents a score below the threshold in all three macro-areas”, i.e. hospital, territorial healthcare and prevention.
Postponed Calabria, Sicily And Sardiniawhich have a score below the minimum threshold in the prevention area and in the health area closest to the citizen.
The Autonomous Province of BolzanoL’Abruzzo and the Molise they do not reach the threshold of sufficiency with regards to prevention.
There Campania leaves much to be desired in terms of local health care.
Three regions are below the threshold for home care: Calabria, Friuli Venezia Giulia And Valle d’Aosta.
The regions below the threshold for rapid intervention in the event of a femur fracture in people over 65 are 9. The worst performances are those of Molise, Calabria And Sardinia.
The North-South divide forces tens of thousands of patients into so-called “health tourism” every year. As for large hospitals in Italy, the South has only 2 significant centers.
Risky lifestyles in the South
Italy is cut in two as regards those dangerous lifestyles for health: the synthetic indicator on lifestyles “highlights critical situations throughout the area southern of the country and is decreasing for almost all Regions”. This denotes “a slight increase in risky health behaviors”.
The coverage indicators are no better oncological screening which are stable compared to the previous year. These indicators “confirm an overall situation less than 50% of the targetin all three campaigns (breast, cervical and colorectal cancer) and very diverse among the various regions: in fact, there is a wide regional variability, with greater critical issues for screening for colorectal cancer, especially in the Centre-South of the country”.
But the performance of the NHS is also put to the test by the chronic lack of general practitioners and the shortage of nurses.
