Nadef And The Health Service: For Minister Schillaci, The Challenge Is Becoming Increasingly Difficult

by Luciano Fassari

Once the spotlight has faded from the pandemic (even though there have been over 160,000 cases and nearly 500 deaths in the last week, and the onset of winter is as unknown as the new variants), the healthcare system seems inevitably doomed to return to rock bottom the government’s political agenda

November 07 –

Nadef, as the Prime Minister also recalled, Giorgia Meloni it is used to prepare the budget law, and in the health sector it is not legitimate to expect further increases on top of the 2 billion already planned. With the spotlight on the pandemic gone (even though there have been over 160,000 cases and nearly 500 deaths in the last week, and the arrival of climatic winter is an unknown factor like the new variants), healthcare seems destined to inevitably return below on the government’s political agenda.

I am now curious as to what the regions will say, which are largely governed by the centre-right government but which had the veiled demand for new funds as the first item in their first list of priorities for the government (they were already startled by Draghis Nadef , let alone melons).

More resources than the Presidents are needed to cope with the lack of skilled workers (hospitals are in trouble and the area is at risk of being abandoned despite the money from the NRR) and also because of the expensive energy and the resulting inflation (never so high ). millennium) combined with the failure to catch up on spending incurred during the harsh years of the pandemic is straining the budgetary stability of even the regions that have always been virtuous. It will be possible to find new tricks (not least medical device payback) and some resources for expensive energy, but it is clear that Nadef is designing a three-year economic standstill for the healthcare sector.

the health minister, Orazio Schillaci, During his first assignments, among his priorities were increasing the salaries of health workers and initiatives to reduce shortages, strengthening GPs and pharmacies, restoring excellence during the pandemic and resuming the theme of prevention starting from screening.

Here, starting from the staff, in terms of contracts, resources are needed (in this sense we must also see the decisions at the level of all public negotiations). To curb the staff shortage, money is needed to lift the ceiling on staff spending (a 1 billion application has been filed for the area) or even (it seems impossible). Regarding the idea of compensation for those who work in an emergency, the last government already allocated 90 million (from the health fund and therefore not additional) for emergency room staff, but it is clear that it is not about this money tempting to go to work.

The game of GPs is also wide because it will be necessary to understand what will happen to the community houses (planned by Pnrr and Dm 77), on which the Minister has announced a reflection, even if there is a clear refusal from Undersecretary Gemmato . And then there’s the all new convention to play. As for the restoration of waiting lists, Speranza has thrown a billion on the plate, but also given the latest Agenas data, practically all regions are struggling to return to pre-Covid levels of service numbers and, inevitably, waiting times continue to be affected.

Of course, to get new resources one could also opt for a new season of spending review (in the meantime the ministry has to do it given the new dpcm just launched that will cut about 30 million in the next 3 years), but aside from that, Despite having seen the cleaver for over a decade, the healthcare sector is one of the most heavily controlled public sectors and has practically bottomed out in recent years, although there is always waste.

A really difficult challenge for the minister who, if he wants to achieve something concrete (since he cannot use the weapon of political blackmail without having a party behind him), must first of all build alliances with the regions and the sectors interested. Schillaci, as he has said, can’t wait to see beyond the pandemic, but given the nadef, it will take much more than a light than a torch to emerge from this new tunnel that public health is preparing to enter and the outcome of which is likely to have only one aim: the erosion of the NHS.

Luciano Fassari