«The recent pandemic has highlighted all the critical issues of the national healthcare system. In recent years, the debate has heated up on the lack of investments in public health, on the difficult working conditions and on the small number of medical and nursing staff in the structures and in the territories, especially in emergency/urgency medicine. In Calabria, an effective solution to lighten the load on the emergency room and create healthcare that is closer to people could be the activation of the professional figure of the family or community nurse (IFoC)”: this is the idea of the councilor regional Ernesto Alecci who talks about «a new and modern figure who would significantly improve home care and health prevention in our region. Especially in inland or mountain areas, further from hospitals, where, sometimes, the figure of a family doctor is not even present, these nurses could have a very important role. Yet, although it is active in some regions of Italy (Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany) and is being tested in others, this figure is not currently present in Calabria. For this reason I presented a question to the President and Acta Commissioner for Health Roberto Occhiuto in order to find out what actions the Region intends to take to proceed with the effective use of the professional figure of the Family or Community Nurse ».
«As indicated by law decree no. 34/2020 and provided for by ministerial decree no. 77/2022, the IFoC can work on an outpatient and home-based basis, ensuring – adds the opposition councilor – nursing care in collaboration with general practitioners and paediatricians, social workers and rehabilitation technicians. An effective network of IFoC would make it possible to increase the quantity and quality of hours of patient care, considerably reducing the number of hospitalizations, it would help medical staff in the constant evaluation of people’s state of health and needs, it could take charge of the implementation of informative and educational interventions aimed at promoting lifestyle changes. A great help, therefore, which could support general medicine and promote the decongestion of emergency rooms, especially for an initial evaluation of any white or green codes”.
According to Alecci «in our region regarding the activity of this professional figure, also mentioned in the Pnrr at mission 6, everything is still at a standstill. The presence of these nurses in all the Calabrian provinces would certainly lead to the reduction of some inconveniences that Calabrian citizens encounter in daily care and the difficulties of family doctors and hospitals in carrying out their activities. As with other proposals made in the past, my question, in addition to having a cognitive value, intends to be a contribution in the search for efficient and effective solutions for the future of healthcare in Calabria”, he concludes.
