The National Union of Outpatient Clinics, Polyclinics, Institutions and Private Hospitals (Uap) requests the intervention of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, “in his capacity as guardian and guarantor of the Constitution, to clarify the funds allocated to pharmacies and the clear violation of art. 78 of Royal Decree no. 1265/1934, which expressly provides for the incompatibility of the healthcare profession with that of trader. And it asks whether in light of these regulatory interventions – which equate pharmacies to healthcare facilities – it can then be deduced consequently that private healthcare facilities can also provide healthcare services without complying with the 420 requirements required by Legislative Decree no. 502/1992, without having to subordinate the exercise of their activity to prior regional authorizations and whether they can sell drugs, creams and slippers”. The crux is the possibility that with the ‘pharmacy of services’ the latter can perform tests and visits, as happens in accredited private outpatient clinics and polyclinics.
The president of the UAP, Mariastella Giorlandino, recalls that, “in particular, Legislative Decree no. 502/1992 (a law in force throughout the national territory) unequivocally establishes that health services can only be provided by facilities that possess certain requirements (as many as 420) and that have obtained the release of regional authorizations. In this regard, it should be emphasized that pharmacies do not possess the requirements requested by the aforementioned legislation, but – she points out – they act by virtue of a mere municipal authorization (provided for pursuant to Law no. 153/2009) which recognizes the possibility of carrying out self-control tests, such as fingerpricks, which do not provide an exact diagnosis and which, above all, do not identify any civil or criminal liability for the person who performed the test in cases of possible diagnostic error”.
“Therefore, recognizing pharmacies as having the ability to provide real health services means going against the regulatory provisions of the aforementioned Legislative Decree no. 502/1992, and therefore no longer guaranteeing quality of services, passing it off to citizens as a measure of economic convenience that in fact does not exist”, he highlights.
‘It is scandalous to note that more funds are allocated to them than those allocated to healthcare facilities’
“I’ll give you an example: an electrocardiogram performed by a pharmacist (who is not a doctor) and reported via telemedicine is reimbursed to pharmacies at 30 euros; on the other hand, an electrocardiogram performed and reported by a doctor is reimbursed to healthcare facilities at only 12 euros. It is scandalous – Giorlandino insists – to note that pharmacies are expected to receive more funds than those allocated to healthcare facilities and public hospitals, while only a few months ago an 80% cut in reimbursements was expected for hospital facilities and accredited facilities under agreement in the Regions in the recovery plan, due to an alleged lack of funds to finance Italian public healthcare”.
“All this – observes the Uap president – would have entailed a certain risk of closure of public health facilities and a certain failure of private ones, in addition to a macroscopic damage to the treasury, subject to judgment before the Court of Auditors, thus affecting only Southern Italy in the recovery plan. Although the Zangrillo DL and the so-called ‘Taglia Code’ Decree have not been approved, the Regions are asked how it is possible that they are self-deliberating to pharmacies the possibility of carrying out screening with national funds without respecting the aforementioned national legislation referred to in Legislative Decree no. 502/1992, seriously endangering the health of citizens and thus creating two distinct categories of providers of health facilities: pharmacies free from requirements and spending caps and health facilities that instead must comply with the 420 regional requirements and authorizations”.
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