Retired Sardinian doctors can return to their medical practices and provide primary care to the population. This is according to the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the question of the legitimacy of the law approved by the Regional Council extending the validity of the provision allowing local health authorities to use retired general practitioners to provide primary care is unfounded.
For the Consulta, this is " an attempt to respond to the current situation of lack of access to primary care and continuity of care in the regional territory," and "this response falls within the regions' responsibilities regarding health care, without infringing on the state's jurisdiction."
In particular, the Constitutional Court, with ruling number 177, filed today, rejected the question of the constitutionality of Article 1, paragraph 1, of Sardinian law number 2 of 2025.
The law, a press release from the Constitutional Court explains, extended the effectiveness of the regional law, "until the completion of the new procedures for assigning primary care and continuity of care locations and in any case no later than June 30, 2025," which had allowed retired general practitioners to participate, even under freelance contracts, in primary care and continuity of care projects activated by local health authorities to ensure complete primary care coverage in disadvantaged areas, and to have access to the prescription pads referred to in Article 50 of Legislative Decree No. 269 of 2003, until December 31, 2024.
This latter regional provision had already been challenged by the Government, with an appeal dismissed by ruling number 84 of 2025. In today's ruling, the Court confirmed its findings in decision no. 84, recognizing that the provision challenged in the new ruling, by extending the terms of the previous regulation, "appears to be an attempt to address the contingent situation of lack of capacity for primary care and continuity of care in the regional territory. Article 1, paragraph 1, of Law number 2 of 2025 of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, Consequently, the alleged violation of the State's exclusive legislative competence in the area of "civil order" is unfounded.
