In addition to everything else, electronics have also become complicated for GPs and their patients. Specifically, the Siss platform, i.e. the Region’s socio-health information system, which was blocked for three days, paralyzing basic healthcare activity: no possibility of prescribing medical prescriptions or providing referrals for visits and tests, no sick certificates, no access to patients’ health records. «In the last two years there has not been a day in which at a certain point the system did not block for a few minutes – says Dr. Paola Nardis, general practitioner and coordinator of general practitioners for the CGIL of Bergamo – . But in the last three days we have not had the opportunity, except for very brief moments, to access the platform.”
Many doctors have reported the problem, which has also seen major disruptions to the business for services such as sickness certificates, for which it was necessary to telephone the INPS and then proceed with the paper documents, with procedures that each time required half an hour. Now. Given that the documents, once inserted, go from the regional server to that of the ministry, it was not possible to understand in which part of the IT journey the glitch was located. «Patients continued to call, to request the sending of prescriptions that they were waiting to receive via email, or urgently asked for the sick note to use in the workplace – continues the doctor -. It was really impossible to continue business normally. Access is sometimes restored for a few seconds, but for such a short time that, for example, it is impossible to read the reports. Or I had to work from home late in the evening because it sometimes worked at that time. It’s a truly exasperating situation.”
Yesterday morning the platform restarted. The blockade had already occurred at the end of 2023 and in April, and, according to complaints in doctors’ chats, involved other provinces: «We ask those who supervise the Mef server and the Siss platform at a regional level – concludes the doctor – to intervene, because the damage is serious».
Today the president of the Bergamo Medical Association, Guido Marinoni, spoke on the matter and his colleagues from Como, Lecco, Brescia, Cremona, Mantua, Milan, Monza Brianza, Pavia, Sondrio and Varese. «It is perhaps right to remember that from the Pnrr», National Recovery and Resilience Plan, «more than 15 billion have been allocated for innovation, research and digitalisation of the National Health Service, resources distributed to the Regions for the strengthening of these services with the aim of networking the Aft”, Territorial Functional Aggregations, “and all the structures provided for by Ministerial Decree 77 and to promote the creation of telemedicine services. All this will only be possible with an efficient and qualified IT system”, observe the presidents. «Therefore – they conclude – we are asking with strength and determination that not only that the current critical issues are resolved quickly, but that we proceed with the creation of a more solid, secure and faster networkand so that it can guarantee professionals to work with tranquility and serenity in the interests of the citizen and the profession”.
