“We hope that the parliamentary process of the so-called ‘Simplifications Bill’ will allow us to review the rule that provides for the implementation of clinical analyzes in the pharmacy, because it represents a choice that does not comply with the requirements established by law no. 502/1992; does not take into account the technological progress of the equipment and the specific professionalism needed; it does not consider the issue of the appropriateness of the examination in a clinical-diagnostic path, delegating the choice of which tests to carry out to the patient, and represents a potentially enormous waste of resources”. Thus Luca Marino, vice-president of Unindustria with responsibility for healthcare, intervenes on the topic of the simplification bill, presented to the Council of Ministers by the Minister for Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo but not yet approved by Parliament.
In recent days there have been various positions taken by trade associations and medical-scientific societies which have criticized the provision which, as Marino also recalls, “creates a rift between the paths and authorization rules to which healthcare facilities are subordinated for be able to provide health services to protect the health of citizens. The bill – adds Marino – provides for the implementation of analyzes in pharmacies, without however complying with the requirements established by law no. 502/1992 for healthcare facilities”.
According to Unindustria, the reasons for such opposition are not only of a formal and authorization nature but substantial. “In recent decades, laboratory medicine has experienced a strong technological evolution which today allows us to have increasingly accurate data – recalls Marino – The Ministry of Health itself has imposed the reorganization of the laboratory network throughout the Italian territory, which involves the establishment of large hubs that carry out the analytical phase, for millions of performances per year, thanks to the use of automated and highly refined instrumentation”. Perform “laboratory tests in the pharmacy using rapid systems on cards or instruments called Poct-point of care testing (i.e. analyzes carried out near the patient’s point of care or assistance, ed.), would represent – he warns – an incomprehensible U-turn towards a technology of decidedly lower quality than that available on the market today”.
But there is also a theme of appropriateness of the diagnostic test: “Self-control entrusted to the citizen’s choice – observes Marino – without a precise prescription from a clinician who, after having carefully classified the patient and expressed the diagnostic question, decides the laboratory tests to be carried out are an erroneous method and, at times, dangerous for people’s health, as several medical-scientific societies and professional bodies have recently recalled, through Fnomceo”.
Finally, the measure – according to the vice president of Unindustria Sanità – risks being counterproductive from a financial point of view: “From a purely economic and sustainability point of view – highlights Marino – we are faced with a potentially enormous waste of resources in a context in which they are insufficient to guarantee care for all Italian citizens. Precisely in these days in which Minister Schillaci announces that he is implementing important measures to improve the accuracy of prescriptions, it is not clear what the rationale is that can endorse a system in which, by virtue of the principle of self-control, the use of inappropriate performance by citizens could increase dramatically, further burdening the coffers of the NHS. “We therefore hope that the provision, during the parliamentary process, can be revised to overcome the many critical issues encountered”, he concludes.
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