The Lombardy region has initiated a plan to train and hire more than 200 Uzbek nurses. The purpose is to address the significant nursing shortage in Lombardy hospitals, which recently resulted in a crisis and turmoil at Milan's San Raffaele Hospital. To execute a portion of this plan, €900,000 has been designated over a three-year period. According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Italy has fewer nurses than the European average. Lombardy is also the Italian area with the fewest nurses per thousand population. These figures are partly owing to the fact that low earnings and a heavy schedule make the nursing profession unappealing, resulting in fewer and fewer young people enrolling in nursing school and more and more nurses abandoning their positions. According to an agreement with the Republic of Uzbekistan's Migration Agency, Lombardy plans to welcome 210 Uzbek nurses in 2026, with a goal of reaching 3,000 in succeeding years. The initiative, titled "Inferm-East", is the outcome of a collaborative agreement between Lombardy and Uzbekistan across multiple sectors, including healthcare, as well as the economy, research, culture, and tourism.