“Today we are equipping a thousand community homes within which we can set up primary and secondary prevention centers to screen subjects particularly predisposed to lung cancer and, therefore, take care of them with the idea that today cancer is a pathology that can be fought and defeated.” This was said by Marcello Gemmato, Undersecretary of Health, during his speech at the presentation of the data from the program of the Italian lung screening network (Risp), this morning in Rome.
“95% of the National Health Fund is spent on treatment and only 5% on prevention”, underlines Gemmato who quips: “We almost make Italians sick to treat them when instead we should do the opposite”. And he adds that “we need to invert the pyramid: invest in prevention and cure less. This serves to make the public health system sustainable. Our population is aging, the blanket is always the same only because our Government has invested funds in healthcare reaching the maximum record of 134 billion euros, faced with a declining birth rate and an aging population, we need to preserve the health of the elderly to also make the National Health Service more sustainable”.
For the undersecretary, screening is a way to both save lives and save public resources. “Today, lung cancer costs 2.5 billion euros a year and this makes it clear how much we should invest in prevention, both for the health of the population and for that of public coffers – highlights Gemmato – We need new organizational models in which prevention becomes an essential element for our healthcare system – remember – we are working to verify the feasibility of introducing lung cancer screening at least” for those at risk, “such as serious smokers”.
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