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Hospitals short of doctors and nurses are looking for new resources. Competitions are starting again in many regions – such as in Lazio where an extraordinary plan for new hirings for over 9 thousand health workers is being aimed at – and with calls for tenders destined to grow even more next year given that from 2025, as foreseen by the latest decree on waiting lists, the hated spending cap on hiring health personnel will be abolished. In short, the Health Service is finally trying to catch its breath after the Covid tsunami. But are there doctors and nurses ready to submit their applications?
Zaia’s warning: “Competitions every three days, but many deserts”
The crux is precisely here, given that most of the announcements go unfilled: too few candidates compared to the available positions. This is because young and old are less and less attracted to the white coat in public hospitals, between non-competitive salaries if not downright low like for nurses, stress and grueling shifts to which is added the recent boom in assaults. The latest cry of alarm comes from Veneto where at least 3,500 doctors are missing, but they cannot be found as the Governor reiterated in recent weeks Luca Zaia: “We hold a competition every three days, and there are many that go unfilled, where no people show up”. “For example – continues Zaia – if we had the possibility of hiring dermatologists for visits scheduled 60/90 days out, we would not have more than ten thousand people still waiting”.
From the emergency department of Campania to the ASL of Alto Adige
Among the most recent and sensational cases is the one that comes from the single regional competition of Campania for emergency rooms. A large competition announced a few months ago for qualifications and exams for the coverage of 363 full-time and permanent positions of medical director in the discipline of emergency medicine. The final ranking published on April 26 on the website of the local health authority was however discouraging: only nineteen specialists were admitted, forty-three specialists for a total of 62 doctors. But then only 51 doctors accepted the position, including specialists and specialists. In short, a flop. The same as the recent competitions of the ASL of Alto Adige that went deserted in Pediatric Surgery, Pharmacology, Geriatrics. Psychiatry, Pathological Anatomy, Neurosurgery, Medical Genetics. So much so that in the entire health company there are 130 unemployed doctors – out of over 1,300 in regular service – who work as freelancers. Plus about fifteen as token workers.
Too low salaries for nurses, unattractive gowns
Among the most critical situations is that of nurses, where the shortage is more serious than that of doctors, especially due to salaries that are too low and career prospects reduced. Here too, competitions are often a flop like the maxi one last year in Friuli Venezia Giulia announced by Arcs for the hiring of 639 nurses needed by seven regional health companies and institutions. 966 applications arrived, but 506 showed up for the written test: of these 311 did not gain admission to the subsequent practical test and only 124 were present for the oral exam, more or less a quarter of the initial candidates. “For doctors – explains Pierino Di Silveriosecretary of the hospital workers’ union Anaao Assomed – there is a problem of low attractiveness of the profession, but it is also necessary to facilitate access to hospitals which today is regulated by a 1988 law according to which today a specialist needs on average 2 years and three tests to pass a competition”.
