An amateur singer-songwriter, born in 1960, once wrote a song entitled: “We who always have to queue, we who will be 40 years old in 2000 ». A good and bad forecast at the same time. Perfect because i baby boomer their ranks have also done so, in work before and in healthcare today (right now that they presumably need it most). Wrong because everyone is resigning themselves to queue, especially in health care, at levels that those born in those years could not have imagined after having enjoyed, while still relatively young, a season in which welfare, even with all its limitations, was not in a critical situation like today. A few days ago a phone call from a reader who was assigned for a breast ultrasound provided by the screening programs an appointment in 2024! If you think that it is an exception or that it was a misunderstanding, you will immediately change your mind: neither one nor the other. And the episode did not happen in one of the regions suffering the most in this respect. Just one example of course: anyone could report other similar ones.
How can the problem be solved? Certainly as citizens and users of the National Health Service we must do our part, knowing the rules governing waiting lists, as explained in the following pages, and learning to “use” the NHS with intelligence and respect, for example by remembering to do your civic duty by canceling appointments to which you cannot present yourself in time. Having said that, stressed that each of us must do our part, there remain problems that we cannot solve nothe. And that even doctors cannot solve it on their own. The theme is eminent political, even more than organizational. The existence to which we have resigned ourselves of the “two tracks” is acquiring new ramifications: no longer just a certain waiting time for a ticket-only service (or exempt) provided for by the NHS, or preferential lane if you have insurance. Now it is spreading a third option: those who pay “in cash” also pass in front of those who have insurance.
With cynicism one could say: “It’s the market economy, what else do you expect?”. Or, more politely: “There is a theme of sustainability on the part of those who provide the services that cannot be evaded”. Both are true. However how to blame those who wonder why to pay taxes if insured and “well-off” pass by on a waiting list? And for those who are insured: «Why pay a policy if you don’t even have“ a front row seat ”? And maybe you can’t even choose the professional to be treated? ». There are no simple solutions but at least we should start, and it is an invitation to those who will govern us to do so, from some unavoidable fixed points. The first is that the right to health recognized to all is not only a cornerstone of a truly civil society. The second is that a universalistic NHS it is a guarantee not only of social justice but also of social peace. The costs that we would have to bear, individually and collectively, if this system were to cease to exist or to really work would be immensely taller compared to those represented by what may now appear to be expenditure items and instead are investments.
September 26, 2022 (change September 26, 2022 | 16:39)
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