In spending on medical devices, all Apulian local health authorities have exceeded the ceiling set for 2023 of 173.1 million euros. The ceiling of 371.2 million has thus increased to 544.3 million. And seven out of ten companies even increased spending compared to 2022, while only that of the Ospedali Riuniti di Foggia managed to achieve the minimum objective of reducing the gap. The system is therefore unable to respect either the ceilings deriving from state law or the minimum objectives for reducing the deviation, a sign that it seems almost impossible to improve the service without resorting to cuts. The problem has been dragging on for some time: even in 2022 the overall spending ceiling of the local health authorities was in fact equal to 362.1 million and the actual spending was 537.7 with a deviation of 175.5. The record in the deviation, in terms of absolute value, belongs to the ASL Bari with 37.9 million, immediately followed by the ASL Lecce with 36.9, the ASL Taranto with 22.7, that of Foggia with 14.7, the ‘ASL Bat with 13.2 and last that of Brindisi with 12.5 million. Similarly, the Bari Polyclinic hospital also has the largest gap, 22.3 million, followed by that of the OO.RR. of Foggia with 7.1, the Irccs De Bellis also of Bari with 4.1 and the Irccs Oncologico also of the regional capital with 1.2. That of OO.RR. of Foggia remains the most significant case: the 2023 spending ceiling of 33.3 million was exceeded, reaching 40.4 with a deviation of 7.1 million, thus reaching the minimum annual objective of its reduction by 3.7 millions.
From these numbers «it emerges – observes Fabiano Amati, president of the first regional council commission to which the data was provided – that the state ceilings on spending on medical devices and the minimum objectives of reducing the gap between the ceiling and actual spending are not being respected. It’s a big problem that we’ve been having for many years and that we can’t solve.”
