MODENA. Two hundred thousand health services including visits and tests. The Modena healthcare companies want to speed up to empty the waiting lists.
So they prepared an extraordinary plan to be “progressively implemented in a manner commensurate with available resources”, involving the accredited private sector. The objective is to reduce the wide gap between the needs of patients in Modena and the province and the availability in local healthcare facilities.
The plan was introduced yesterday morning in the Province at the meeting of the Territorial Social and Health Conference (CTSS). The gap or “gap” between the needs of the people of Modena and availability increases waiting times, “pushing” patients towards private paid facilities.
«To fill that gap we will have to talk about two hundred thousand services – the point of Dr. Romana Bacchi, health director of the Modena Local Health Authority – 75 percent as visits, the remainder as diagnostics».
The plan was presented last May 8th in the Region and the health company remains on the sidelines. «Very fine work has been done which should allow us to return to an acceptable level of agenda management within the year», underlined Bacchi.
How did we arrive at such figures for waiting lists? «On the one hand, Covid has made the population more fragile – explained the health director – On the other, in recent years we have not been able to recruit professionals to rebalance the relationship between supply and demand».
The demand represents the need for visits and tests by patients in Modena. The offer is the response of healthcare facilities. «Demand has increased by approximately twelve percent – added Bacchi – while for “heavy” diagnostics we reach twenty percent, again referring to the pre-pandemic period».
A new feature scheduled for June is that of the pre-lists, “to be activated in critical situations”, as Bacchi further specified. An additional tool to lighten the work of the Single Booking Center (Cup). «We are greatly increasing bookings with the Internal Booking Center (CIP) – observed Bacchi – especially for hospital companies».
As Dr. Ottavio Nicastro, general director of the Polyclinic, recalled, increasing visits and tests is a necessary, but not sufficient, response.
«It cannot be the only action that is proposed – Nicastro intervened – With new services the response can be immediate, but we also have further requests. You have to work on a composite framework, acting on multiple keys.”
The tools include telemedicine, community nurses and the “Specialist on call” project, launched by the Modena Local Health Authority with the Sassuolo hospital.
The project allows the people of Modena to directly contact general practitioners (and now also free-choice paediatricians) even before scheduling a visit.
“It is not the citizen who must go towards specialist services, but it is we who must step forward towards the citizen”, concluded Dr Silvio Di Tella, medical director of the Sassuolo hospital.
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