Pressure and attacks escape doctors from hospitals. Currency holders boom

Rome – Ten doctors leave Italian hospitals every day. Those who can afford to go abroad, some prefer the private sector, and there are even those who apply for the general practitioner competition because they believe they have a more peaceful life. Then there are the “tokenists”: those who go to work in the cooperatives that health companies turn to to fill gaps in the workforce. Otherwise, the ‘privileged’ doctor earns €110 an hour, working less than he did when he was on the ward as an employee. Figures have been collected by the Physicians Management Association Anaao Assomed. “The terrible years of the pandemic have exacerbated this phenomenon, but now the outflow seems unstoppable,” says National Secretary Perino de Silverio. If in 2022 we count seven doctors who quit each day, this year the number is closer to ten. Attention, I am talking about those who leave by choice, not because they retire.

Scenario

The consolidated figures show that the “great flight”, which is in fact a phenomenon that also affects other sectors and not only in Italy, has more pronounced characteristics in hospitals. Between 2019 and 2021, 21,000 doctors have left Italian hospitals. This figure handled by Anaao Assomed included 12,645 retirements, including early retirement. However, the study indicated that 8,000 left by choice, quitting, mainly in health facilities in southern regions, such as Calabria, Sicily and Liguria, but also in Lazio, Lombardy and Liguria.
But who resigns, what will he do? “Some of them accept offers abroad, where they can earn more and get better job opportunities,” notes de Silverio. But there is more: there are those who accept offers from the private sector, especially in those areas where the presence of this type of healthcare facility is stronger. The Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, has promised the small virtuous phenomenon of “token holders” that a brake will be given: “Is it possible that I will come to realize that this kind of hospital management is unacceptable?”. Schillaci decided to put a limit on the number of tasks and in any case before resorting to external tasks it is necessary to check the availability of internal staff. There will also be greater interest in the possession checks of the occupational requirements for “token holders”. They tell the Ministry of Health: when we ordered inspections by people, cases appeared of symbolic doctors who were sent to departments for which they did not have the necessary qualifications. In short: the “great flight” from Italian hospitals was exacerbated by the stress caused by the difficult Covid years, but was also caused by wages considered low (the Ministry intervenes in this matter for emergency room workers); of “deficiencies in the workforce that force us to work grueling shifts,” says de Silverio; With the temptation to raise private sector salaries and a “token holder” job. Then there are a number of contributing factors. The first: the frequency of attacks he is subjected to, especially for those working on the front lines. “And let’s not forget the constant lawsuits of those who believe they have been wronged at the hospital, which always end up being filed because they are unjustified, but which nonetheless add to the tension between doctors,” notes the Anaao Assomed leader. In this regard, the government has formed a committee to reform the medical malpractice crime to face complaints submitted without real reason. All these elements are the basis of the “great escape”, but also in the case of widespread fatigue syndrome, denounced by a study conducted by Fadoi (Scientific Society of Internal Medicine).

choices
Massimo Magnante, who has been on the front lines for many years, chief physician of the Romanian emergency room and president of the Spes union, says: “Unfortunately we are facing the effects of twenty years of cuts in health care. The first to suffer are those who work in emergency rooms, but internal medicine departments are also suffering now. This is torture, let’s not be surprised if the hospital doctors quit. Either the national health system must be retrained, or we may also declare that we can no longer provide a system that is universal, fair and fundamentally free. But this second option is not acceptable.

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In Il Gazzettino