Too much bureaucracy, difficult working conditions and too few staff . These are some of the key points of the strike called by the Italian Doctors Union (Smi) for today and tomorrow . And the white coats - even in Sardinia - have decided to fold their arms in protest: membership is equal to 70% of the approximately 980 general practitioners serving on the island.  

  According to the Sardinian Public Health Defense Network, which supports the mobilization, « healthcare is collapsing . There has been a lack of regional planning for basic medicine for over a decade. The very long times for the attribution of ownership in recent years have meant that the number of vacant offices has increased, depriving numerous Sardinian communities of primary care. Politics invests in new services (ASCOT) weakening basic medicine, medical services and the quality of care. It is of fundamental importance to continue to guarantee citizens the right to choose their doctor, a right on which the doctor-patient relationship of trust is based. The shortage of family doctors cannot be resolved by raising the limit of patients from 1500 to 1800, nor with the Community Homes with the threat of closure of the Medical Guards and even less by leaving space for private neighborhood clinics".

The first problem to be solved - for the Sardinian network - is the shortage of healthcare personnel. «And yet – continues the committee – nothing is done to train new doctors and to prevent those already trained from fleeing the public health system and often from Sardinia. The overload of bureaucracy, the inhumane working conditions, the lack of adjustment of salaries compared to Europe and other regions of Italy, as well as the lack of facilities that allow access to the most disadvantaged locations, mean that the few doctors trained follow other paths. Due to the failure of politics in health matters, entire communities are in a state of abandonment."