The law on the development of associative forms of general medicine approved by a majority of the Regional Council returns centrality to the role of the family doctor.
As illustrated by the councilor for health Luigi Genesio Icardi, “Strengthening the associations of general medicine in the area means opening the way to a real change of pace in the planning of healthcare in Piedmont, aiming at a model of medicine that is no longer about waiting, but about initiative. We want to allow, in the medium-long term, an optimal management of chronic diseases, and in the short term the timely interception on the territory of suspected Covid patients, with a consequent reduction of the impact on hospitals “.
“The health emergency – continues Icardi – has made it dramatically evident how necessary it is to bring back the role of general medicine in the area. An objective to which we immediately dedicated the utmost attention, up to activating a special working group coordinated by Professor Ferruccio Fazio in the middle of the pandemic, which produced a range of concrete solutions collected in the new law. The investment of 10 million a year fielded by the Region, in addition to 17,3 millions of euros already earmarked for first-level diagnostic health equipment for general practitioners and pediatricians of free choice and for 7 million euros for telemedicine, clearly demonstrates that it is getting serious and that the turning point has been ”.
A law that, concludes the commissioner, represents “an important strategic result above all because it relaunches and strengthens the measures already activated in recent months with the same purposes, from telemedicine to pharmacy services, from the framework agreement on home care, to the new portal salutepiemonte.it on digital health services of the Piedmont Region. All with the common goal of guaranteeing uniformity of assistance to all citizens, overcoming territorial and organizational differences “.
The main contents
The new law recognizesprimary assistance the pivotal role of territorial assistance, strengthening the current associative forms of “Group medicine” e “network medicine“Of general medicine. Doctors who choose to work in one of these two association modalities will be supported by study staff. In particular, 60 percent of doctors will have secretarial staff (today they are 43%) and 40 percent of nurses (today they are 19%). It is also expected that the Region will adopt a Territorial Assistance Plan with the establishment of nursing management services in the district of the ASL and with the strengthening of the figure of the family and community nurse to implement local and home services.
Working in a group allows the greatest synergies and economy of scale (for example it allows you to add up the individual reimbursements for study staff and nurses and to divide the various expenses) and at the same time offers citizens proposals for proactive medicine and a doctor available for several hours , morning and afternoon.
The online medicine modality, on the other hand, can preferably be activated in very large areas, with a scarce population and more dispersed medical clinics, as it does not require a single location, but allows doctors to maintain their clinics, in order to not to compromise the capillarity of the assistance and favor the accessibility to the patients.
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