As of January 1, 2022, "deeming acceptable a ratio of 1 GP for every 1,250 patients", a shortage of 2,876 is estimated, and by 2025 more than 3,400 will be lost. Moreover, 42.1 percent of family physicians exceed the ceiling of 1,500 patients, reducing the quality of care. This is the dramatic figure that emerges from an analysis by the Gimbe Foundation on critical issues in the regulations governing the inclusion of general practitioners in the National Health Service. The most critical situations for the shortage of GPs are found in the large northern regions: Lombardy (-1,003), Veneto (-482), Emilia Romagna (-320), and Piedmont (-229), as well as in Campania (-349). The shortage of family physicians is also reflected in the excessive number of patients per physician: of the 40,250 GPs, 42.1 percent, according to Agenas data, have more than 1,500 patients, a ceiling set by the National Collective Agreement (NCA) that in special cases has been increased up to 1,800 and up to 2,000 under waivers (e.g., in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano). The 1,500-physician limit is exceeded by more than one in two GPs in Campania (52.7%), Valle d'Aosta (58.2%), and Veneto (59.8%), and by almost two in three in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (63.7%), Lombardy (65.4%), and the Autonomous Province of Trento (65.5%).
|