Schillaci against token doctors: “Aberrant that they work in the emergency room without skills”

The Minister of Health: "Of the over 18 million accesses in emergency rooms in 2023, four million were improper"

ROME – “I want to extend special thanks to the hundreds of young people present in this room who have chosen the specialization in emergency medicine which today is among those most affected by lack of attractiveness and a high dropout rate. And the reason for your choice can only be a strong vocation and the rediscovery of the authentic meaning of the medical profession which is to save human lives. Because this is what a professional who works in the emergency room does.” This was stated by the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, who spoke in Assisi at the fourth national congress of the Italian Emergency Medicine School (Items). But then Schillaci takes the opportunity to argue against the “tokenist” doctors.

According to Schillaci, it is “aberrant that so many coin-optional doctors make themselves available to work in emergency rooms, sometimes even without specific skills, seriously putting the safety of care at risk“. Because according to the minister “only through emergency-urgency training is it possible to acquire a wealth of skills that includes the ability to manage critical patients who require life-saving interventions, but also a broad and accurate diagnostic capacity to correctly identify the pathology” . More than the “availability” of token doctors, it should be “aberrant” if anything that hospital facilities actually make them work in the emergency room…

“Of course – continued the government representative – it is undeniable that, for years, healthcare personnel in emergency departments have had to deal with a complex daily life: an ever-increasing number of accesses that become difficult to manage above all due to staff shortages, continuous episodes of physical and verbal aggression and the phenomenon of compensation requests for alleged medical negligence, it must be said with great sincerity that time is needed to recover the erosion caused by years of inaction and austerity that have determined the escape of staff from the emergency room. The good news is that we are working to bring hospital emergency services back to normal”.

“I would like to underline – the words of the Minister of Health – that the first measures implemented by this government concerned the emergency rooms. We first intervened with economic measures: I am thinking of allowances , to the increase in pay for additional hours and to the recognition of strenuous work. To ensure greater safety, we have tightened the penalties for those who attack healthcare workers. And we have intervened to put an end to a situation of inequality among those who choose to work on piecework earning triple and with fewer tasks and those who have won a competition, working every day with professionalism and greater responsibility”.

The minister then underlined that “there are still issues to be resolved, I am thinking in particular of the lack of With this awareness, in the recent Pnrr decree we continued to provide measures aimed at enhancing human capital: we facilitated flexible contracts by removing an initial spending cap on hiring and overcame constraints that limited the presence of trainees, who must be more present in the workplace. lane and paid appropriately. But all the measures undertaken to get the emergency rooms out of this ‘ordinary emergency’ situation must be accompanied by the strengthening of local medicine to be truly effective”.

“The latest survey by Agenas – the minister informed – indicates that of the over 18 million accesses to emergency rooms in 2023, four million were improper: with 68% of codes white and green. We are talking about patients who do not have trauma, who choose to go to the emergency room due to a cultural factor that leads them to identify the hospital as the first response to their needs, or sometimes on the advice of family doctors, particularly on holidays or on weekends. Improper access which drops considerably in the presence of community homes which represent the most appropriate care setting for all non-urgent health needs. Today these facilities are starting to spread, albeit patchily, throughout the territory.” .