Healthcare, Istat: “The number of citizens who have given up treatment due to excessive waiting lists or economic problems has risen to 4.5 million”

Once the pandemic passed, life expectancy in Italy recovered ground, reaching 83.1 years in 2023. Very close to the 2019 level, 83.2. But the positive evolution risks being interrupted if the trend towards the decline of the National Health Service is not reversed. Today a new alarm – after the appeal of a group of […]

Once the pandemic has passed, in Italy the life expectancy has made up ground by touching him in 2023 83.1 years. Very close to the 2019 level, 83.2. But the positive evolution risks being interrupted if the trend towards the decline of the market is not reversed National Health Service. Today a new alarm – after the appeal of a group of doctors and scientists concerned about the public health crisis – comes from the eleventh edition of the Fair and Sustainable Wellbeing Report (Bes) of Istataccording to which in 2023 they are approximately 4.5 million citizens who have had to give up medical visits or diagnostic tests due to economic problems, waiting lists or access difficulties. It’s about the 7.6% of the population: increasing compared to 7% in 2022 and 6.3% in 2019.

In a context in which, according to the report, just over half of the 129 well-being indicators (out of 152) for which comparison is possible have improved compared to the previous year, healthcare (along with environment and safety) is an exception. Also because public funding has increased in absolute value but, if inflation is taken into account, it has actually decreased in the last three years. Istat links the increase in waivers to the need to recover the postponed performances for Covid-19 and the difficulty in effectively reorganizing assistance. In particular, the share of those who gave up due to excessive waiting times doubled compared to pre-Covid (from 2.8% in 2019 to 4.5% in 2023). The renunciation for economic reasons it is stable compared to 2019 but increases by 1.3 points in just one year, al 4.2%.

Istat summarizes all the problems affecting the NHS: many general practitioners they are close to leaving the job market (77% are over 54) and their endowment was already in sharp decline (from 7.5 per 10 thousand inhabitants in 2012 to 6.7 in 2022). In this context, the share of ‘maximalists’ with more than 1,500 clients increases (from 27.3% to 47.7%). The system also has, and has long had, a shortage of nursing staffwith an allocation of 6.8 per thousand inhabitants in 2022.

Citizens suffer the consequences. In 2023 there is a worsening of the indicator on trust in staff healthcare: 20.1% of citizens assigned a grade from 0 to 5 to doctors and 21.3% to other healthcare personnel; the percentages are highest in the South (24.2% and 26.6% respectively).

“While ministers Schillaci and Calderone flaunt extraordinary interventions and Prime Minister Meloni praises investments and extraordinary health policies, over the last year Istat has recorded a worsening of the condition of people”, comments the confederal secretary of the CGIL Daniela Barbaresi. “The healthcare staffing crisis is worsening, citizens are disheartened and increasingly affected by increasing poverty: the government is very far from reality. Also for this coming Saturday we will be back in the streets with the Uil, with a large national demonstration for the defense and strengthening of public health, for the protection of wages and for tax reform, interventions that are necessary to improve the lives of citizens of our country”.