THE‘intramural activity of doctors in public health returns to growth on pre-Covid numbers and revenues also rise sharply. After the -28% collapse in 2020 due to the pandemic, freelance services within hospitals are increasing again, consolidating the trend recorded since 2021, despite the continuing decrease in doctors practicing intramoenia.
Data on intramural activity
This is revealed by the numbers of the Annual Report on the state of implementation of the exercise of intramural freelance professional activity for the year 2022, transmitted by the Ministry of Health to Parliament.
According to the report, the total revenues from the services of doctors in intramural hospitals amount to 1.177 million eurosfor an increase of approximately 8% compared to 2021, when total revenues had been 1.087 billion euros, marking an inevitable +33% on the previous year.
At a national level, the largest part of the revenues for the intramoenia activity is made up of services specialistwhich represents over 68%, while the portion of intramural freelance professional activity coming from the hospital area weighs 19.5%.
The data also shows an increase in earnings which went from 235 million euros to 256, with an increase of approximately +8.5%, in line with the increase in costs sustained by healthcare companies (921 million euros).
An upward trend despite the number of doctors practicing intramural medicine having dropped to 8,209 units, with a drop of more than 15 points percentages between 2014 and 2022.
In which region is the per capita expenditure highest?
In 2022, intramoenia results in per capita expenditure equal to 20 euros for each citizen resident in Italy, with differences in values that vary significantly depending on the area analyzed in the national territory, with a clear gap recorded between hospitals in the North and South of the country, both in terms of per capita spending value and variation compared to 2021.
If we look at the data region by region, the highest per capita expenditure for intramoenia activity in the reference year is recorded in Emilia-Romagna, with 34.8 euros per yearfollowed by Valle d’Aosta (32.2 euros/year), Piedmont (29.9 euros/year) and Tuscany (28.6 euros/year).
At the bottom of the ranking we find the regions of Southern Italy with an average significantly lower than the national average, as in Molise (4.4 euros/year) and in Calabria (5.5 euros/year), but also the autonomous province of Bolzano with an annual expenditure of 6.5 euros per citizen.
Among the PA regions, eight declared that they had sufficient space to allow doctors to carry out in-house activities (Abruzzo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Molise, Bolzano, Trento, Tuscany, Valle d’Aosta, Veneto) while in the majority of the Companies they resorted to activating the experimental program (81.5%).
According to the annual report of the Ministry of Health, the most requested performances these are the cardiological, gynecological and orthopedic visits and, as regards the instrumental tests, the electrocardiogram, then the cardiac (color) Doppler ultrasound, the lower, upper and complete abdominal ultrasound and the unilateral and bilateral breast ultrasound.
Furthermore, as highlighted by the report, regarding waiting times for booking visits and tests in intramural clinics, approximately 56% foresee the fulfillment of the service. within 10 dayswhile in 30% of cases the appointment is set between 11 and 30-60 days (depending on whether it is a specialist visit or an instrumental service) and for 14% of bookings you have to wait beyond 30-60 days
