"A veritable exodus," the Anaao Assomed union calls it, having released a study on the flight of doctors from public hospitals. Sardinia has the highest numbers in Italy: three times as many doctors leave the departments as retire, and despite the hiring, the final figure for ten years shows a deficit of 298 professionals.

"It's no longer just a staff shortage. We're faced with a system that can't keep doctors in service," they complain. "Continuing to hire without addressing the reasons that lead to their departure means filling a container that keeps emptying."

The data

The areas that are suffering the most are emergency-urgency, surgery, anesthesia-resuscitation, orthopedics, and neonatology. On the one hand, young people are choosing other specialties, on the other, there is a trend of moving towards the private sector and more "human" dimensions.

In Sardinia, the number of doctors in service decreased from 4,291 in 2015 to 3,993 in 2024 (-6.9%). The average age decreased: -3 years for women (from 51.5 to 48.5) and -4.5 years for men (from 54.6 to 50.1). Permanent contracts, starting from 161 in 2015, peaked in 2023 (463) and then dropped to 379 in 2024 and 221 in 2025; fixed-term contracts went from 375 in 2015 to a peak of 409 in 2017, down to 201 in 2024.