Campania healthcare faces challenges with waiting lists and resource management

Healthcare in the Campania region of Italy is facing scrutiny regarding service accessibility and resource efficiency. The Cisl Napoli trade union has launched a campaign to combat long medical waiting lists. The initiative establishes information desks across the Naples metropolitan area to assist citizens, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, who struggle to obtain specialist visits and diagnostic exams within priority timelines.

Union representatives are guiding users through legal pathways to ensure that if public health authorities (Asl) cannot guarantee timely services, patients can access accredited private or intramoenia services while only paying the required ticket fee. The union is also providing support for reimbursement requests for out-of-pocket expenses.

Simultaneously, medical professionals are addressing the issue of pharmaceutical waste. During a regional congress hosted by the Order of Physicians of Naples, experts highlighted the risk of wasting hundreds of thousands of euros annually on expensive monoclonal antibody therapies. To mitigate this, advocates are promoting precision medicine through nasal cytology. This method allows for better patient selection, ensuring that costly biological treatments are prescribed only to those most likely to benefit, thereby protecting both patient health and regional healthcare budgets.