Rome, June 18 (LaPresse) – The National Health Service is marked by years of underfunding, staff shortages, increasing demand for care and growing organisational complexity. This is the analysis of Pierino Di Silverio, outgoing national secretary of Anaao Assomed, at the 26th national congress of the union of medical doctors and healthcare executives. At the centre of the outgoing secretary’s report is the future of the NHS and the role of professionals who are called upon every day to ensure its functioning. “Despite the critical issues,” reads the press release summarising the key points of Di Silverio’s speech, “the NHS continues to represent one of the fundamental pillars of the country’s social cohesion.” A human resource that is, however, “increasingly exposed to the risk of impoverishment and disengagement.” The data presented by Di Silverio are not reassuring: 10 professionals per day leave the NHS before retirement age, while 5 per day choose to move abroad. Every day, moreover, 7 doctors suffer physical and verbal aggression, while another 7 are reported. 68% of doctors and healthcare managers working in hospitals experience burnout. Among the priorities indicated by the union is the renewal of the contractual framework, “with economic recognition consistent with the level of responsibility required of medical and healthcare management, career paths based on merit, clear limits on workloads and effective measures against all forms of precarious employment.” The second pillar is professional autonomy, against the risk of “a progressive bureaucratisation of the profession, in which clinical judgement is replaced by the mechanical application of procedures and protocols.”
Healthcare, Anaao: “System at risk of collapse, courageous reforms are needed”
Rome, June 18 (LaPresse) – The National Health Service is marked by years of underfunding, staff shortages, increasing demand for care and growing organisational complexity. This is the analysis of Pierino Di Silverio, outgoing national secretary of Anaao Assomed, at the 26th national congress of the union of medical doctors and healthcare executives. At the centre of the outgoing secretary’s report is the future of the NHS and the role of professionals who are called upon every day to ensure its functioning. “Despite the critical issues,” reads the press release summarising the key points of Di Silverio’s speech, “the NHS continues to represent one of the fundamental pillars of the country’s social cohesion.” A human resource that is, however, “increasingly exposed to the risk of impoverishment and disengagement.” The data presented by Di Silverio are not reassuring: 10 professionals per day leave the NHS before retirement age, while 5 per day choose to move abroad. Every day, moreover, 7 doctors suffer physical and verbal aggression, while another 7 are reported. 68% of doctors and healthcare managers working in hospitals experience burnout. Among the priorities indicated by the union is the renewal of the contractual framework, “with economic recognition consistent with the level of responsibility required of medical and healthcare management, career paths based on merit, clear limits on workloads and effective measures against all forms of precarious employment.” The second pillar is professional autonomy, against the risk of “a progressive bureaucratisation of the profession, in which clinical judgement is replaced by the mechanical application of procedures and protocols.”
