In Piedmont, every day, a doctor quits to go into private practice. Faced with the big announcements, faced with Piedmont’s Sottile plan and the Schillaci decree on cutting waiting lists announced but without economic coverage, the data is merciless: doctors are leaving, staff is lacking, waiting lists are getting longer and in the last three years in Piedmont the number of citizens who give up treatment precisely because of waiting lists or because they cannot afford private visits has doubled.
The data is provided by Chiara Rivetti, the regional secretary of Anaao Assomed, the largest medical union not only in Piedmont but throughout the country. 292 doctors left Piedmont public hospitals in 2023, of which 35 anesthetists, 24 psychiatrists, 23 emergency doctors, 17 cardiologists, 15 pediatricians and 15 ophthalmologists. They leave their safe place in the public sector: a few, to continue as general doctors in affiliated clinics, but the majority, 90%, to go to private clinics or open a VAT number.
The hospitals in the provinces are the ones who suffer most of the escapes and not so much Turin which still remains more attractive. And it is mostly women who leave, 53% compared to 47% of men, but it is a percentage that increases if we consider that there are many fewer women doctors. The reasons? Too many holidays and nights, longer hours, excessive work overload due to staff shortages, little valorisation of work and in the private sector they pay better. And to this we also add poorly organized public workplaces and hospitals that have been dilapidated for too many years, with projects for new structures announced but so far not built.
Those most at risk are emergency room doctors, a job that has become exhausting due to workload, numbers, attacks and risk of reporting.
Also striking is the number of resignations of psychiatrists which, according to Anaao Assomed, is due to the fact that since Covid psychiatric cases have increased exponentially, especially among adolescents, while many mental health service centers have been closed in recent years in Piedmont and the burden of work has become “unbearable” for a few people.
A few days after the vote, the Government announced a decree, which however does not have financial coverage, with the strengthening of the offer of visits and exams also on Saturdays and Sundays and extending the time slot towards the evening. Something that has already been done at the Santa Croce di Cuneo for months, and it is no coincidence that the productivity of the Cuneo hospital is above average and it is the only Piedmontese healthcare company not making a loss.
But the problem that doesn’t seem to interest legislators is who will do all this extra work if the doctors and nurses aren’t there? Anaao is pushing for more resources for the public, but the solution adopted today by the regional health system with the Sottile plan to reduce waiting lists goes in the opposite direction, putting even more resources on the private sector: 25 million more to purchase, between now and the end year, visits and exams from accredited facilities.
