Firenze A task force on waiting lists, for now at no cost. Which in fact replicates a structure that already exists. It is the one that Tuscany has just created to respond to the Meloni government and align itself with the indications of the Schillaci decree which became law last July. «The decree asks for the creation of a body for monitoring times in regional healthcare, but for us it is actually useless, because we already had a similar structure and above all a system for real-time control of the lists», he says Simone Bezzini, regional health councilor.
Which is now raising an alarm: «Instead of asking us for this nonsense, the government would have done well to finance the decree on waiting lists. 100 million was enough for all of Italy.” Tuscany would have received six, enough to close the year without shocks. «Instead now we risk running out of petrol», explains Bezzini.
No funds
The 32 million euros of the plan launched last March to recover 500 thousand back visits and provide an answer to 100 thousand Tuscans who were waiting for surgery have been exhausted. Then the Meloni government announced the decree on waiting lists. Tuscany, like all the other regions, expected that the Ministry of Health and the MEF would provide oxygen and allocate funds to implement the rules imposed by the measure. «Instead nothing arrived, and now we are doing a work file on expenses to recover 4-5 million that will allow us to close the year maintaining the standards achieved so far”, says Bezzini.
Improved times
Not a small thing, because from March to today the regional healthcare system has improved significantly on many fronts, in particular on diagnostic tests. Just look at the waiting list monitoring portal. With the exception of some critical issues, in particular in the Empoli area and in north-west Tuscany, almost all diagnostic imaging tests are offered to patients within the times required by law, the majority of healthcare services are even provided on time in 90% of cases . Not only that, the public monitoring system earned Tuscany its inclusion among the top six regions for transparency in a ranking drawn up by the Gimbe foundation. And among the requests of the decree there was precisely that of creating an IT system that would guarantee access to data.
Nothing new, therefore, for Tuscany, given that among the other indications to be respected there is also that of bringing the majority of visits and tests within the minimum standards, and ensuring that at least 80% of health services is paid within the times established by law according to the emergency code. To achieve the objectives, however, the Ministry of Health initially claimed to send its own inspectors, effectively commissioning the Regions on a matter on which the Constitution assigns them government prerogatives. After a long tug of war, Rome agreed to take a step back as long as the Regions established specific units on waiting lists and a Ruas, a single person responsible for healthcare who transfers the monitoring data to Rome every month. This is why the task force is now being created. Who directs it? The director of the regional health department Federico Gelli and the managers of the other sectors who were already carrying out the same task.
The Tuscany-Government clash
It is no coincidence that the decree on waiting lists has become the subject of political conflict between Tuscany and the Meloni government. The terms of the Schillaci decree were considered an interference in the autonomy assigned by Title V of the Constitution, so much so as to convince Eugenio Giani to promote an appeal to the Consulta. However, the issue of resources remains. To close the year we need at least 4-5 million. With the demand for visits and tests increasing relentlessly. From the pre-Covid era to today it has increased by 30%, from 6-7 million prescriptions per year it has gone to 10 million. Tuscans are thirsty for healthcare but healthcare is dry.
