Various prescriptions in the field of public health expire at the end of the year: in addition to the one relating to the obligation to use masks in hospitals and nursing homes (which will be extended, confirmed Minister Schillaci), attention is focused on electronic prescriptions (or dematerialized ). The doctors have already presented a request for an extension and are expecting a positive response, said the president of Fnomceo, Filippo Anelli. "We know that the issue is on the table and we are sure that the minister will show his attention to the subject," announces Silvestro Scotti, national secretary of general practitioners.
Technically it is an ordinance of the Presidency of the Council which - according to the union of Smi doctors and Active Citizenship - should be renewed. "We ask the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, for an extension beyond the deadline of 31 December 2022, of the use of the dematerialized prescription for at least a year and for a provision that makes its use structural" , so as to "free" doctors "from improper bureaucratic burdens"» claims Pina Onotri, general secretary of the Italian Doctors Union (Smi): «Family doctors, continuity of care and territorial emergency doctors are lacking throughout Italy and at the same time are increasingly burdened by improper bureaucratic burdens , with less and less time available for clinical activity". The return to the paper prescription as it was before the Covid emergency, concludes Onotri, "would represent a step backwards, causing long waits in doctors' offices. is that of an extension of at least one year of the measure".
The dematerialized prescription is the electronic version of the traditional red paper prescription and has been implemented in Italy in recent years but until 2020 it was still accompanied by a paper memo to be collected in the doctor's office. The ordinance of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of March 2020 established the possibility of using alternative tools to the paper memo and provides that, when the doctor generates the electronic prescription, the patient can request the release of the dematerialized memo i.e. the electronic recipe number.
