The ceiling, on a voluntary basis, for general practitioners who work in disadvantaged areas in Sardinia, where the increase is necessary to guarantee assistance to citizens, has been raised to 1,800 patients .
The increase was authorized by the Region . Already provided for in the last National Collective Agreement (ACN) of general medicine of 2022, which for its application refers to specific new regional supplementary agreements, is contained in a law provision approved today by the Regional Council pending the new regional supplementary agreement ( AIR) currently under negotiation at the union table.
Furthermore, the division of 10 million euros already allocated in the last regional financial law is established , allocating 70% of the funds to the integration of the AIR funding referred to in the resolution of the Regional Council n. 19/9 of 12 May 2010 (and subsequent amendments) and 30% to the local health authorities for the implementation of primary care and continuity of care projects aimed at guaranteeing uniformity in the essential levels of assistance throughout the territory.
The provision also defines the operations of family nurses in the clinics of general practitioners to reduce the workload especially of the maximalist ones.
«An important provision - said Carlo Doria, councilor for health - to give an immediate response to citizens who live in those areas where there is a strong shortage and thus guarantee the right to health referred to in article 32 of the Constitution. We are currently working to close a supplementary regional agreement with doctors that has been missing since 2010. Doing everything in our power to guarantee citizens general practitioners is an act of responsibility that everyone should agree on".
"To deal with the emergency due to a shortage that weighs particularly heavily on peripheral offices, where it is more difficult to find doctors willing to fill positions - continued Doria - we have implemented and are implementing every tool at our disposal, such as , for example, the economic incentives for those who choose to open their own clinic in a disadvantaged location . In several areas of the island, resorting to increasing the ceiling to 1,800 patients for the duration of six months alone has already been made. Today there are about a hundred doctors who work with more than 1,500 patients. With this provision of law, pending the approval of the new AIR, the possibility for doctors to exceed the ceiling is ensured where it is necessary to guarantee assistance to citizens ».
The normative reference to family nurses, introduced with the agreement of the whole Chamber, is not secondary: «Today we have 1,150 general practitioners who are head offices, just five years ago there were 1,500. The workload has increased, as has the bureaucracy. This aspect too will find answers in the new AIR, but it is important from now on to define a framework through which doctors can find support in their activity", concluded the commissioner.
(Unioneonline/ss)
