TRENT. In Trentino access to the emergency room it is higher than the national average (over 30 accesses per 100 inhabitants while the average is just under 30), but if we look at inappropriate accesses there are those who do worse than us. According to the graph released by Agenas we are under 5 per 100 inhabitants, compared to Bolzano whose number is three times higher. The data emerges from a report that contains the numbers of emergency room accesses and the effects of the strengthening of the emergency room‘Territorial Assistance for better patient care. The national numbers reveal that in 2023 there were 18.27 million accesses to the emergency room with an increase of 6% compared to 2022.
The prevalence of accesses is characterized by triage codes – after medical evaluation – white and green (68% of cases). Of these, approximately 4 million, 22% of total accesses, are improper. They can be considered improper (turned on in white and green codes at the medical examination, with the exclusion of traumas; arrived at the emergency department independently or sent by the family doctor, on weekdays and holidays and during daytime hours, with discharge to home or outpatient facilities). The peak of improper access occurs for the 45-64 age group while it drops to a minimum in the 15-24 age group. As regards Trentino, in 2022 the white codes were 15,899 and the green ones 80,883.
In most cases, as specialists who work in emergencies have long maintained, these are situations that should be managed in another way: by family doctors and continuity of care doctors. The main objective of the emergency room should be to guarantee the treatment of urgent cases, i.e. all cases that require immediate diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.
Not everyone, however, understood this mission. The report also analyzed the percentage of the population of internal areas far from the emergency room.
Our province, also due to the morphology of the territory, is at the top of the ranking, behind only Basilicata, the province of Bolzano and Sardinia. 8.08% of Trentino people live at least 30 minutes from the emergency room, while in Veneto the percentage is 0.47%. Obviously the percentage drops significantly if we consider a distance of 45 minutes and reaches zero for distances greater than an hour.
The Agenas study explains how at a national level the population unable to reach emergency room facilities within 30 minutes (3.4 million equal to 5.8% of the population) could be significantly reduced with the correct implementation of Ministerial Decree 77/2022 , which identifies the definition of models and standards for the development of territorial assistance in the national health service, through the care of patients within the new structures provided for by the Pnrr.
In the Regions where this decree has been implemented, there has been an improvement. Even in Trentino the scenario should change with the creation of the Community Houses. We will always remain in fourth place in the ranking by number, but the percentage of Trentino people far from “treatment” will drop to 5.76%
