Italian healthcare faces sustainability and staffing reforms

The Italian National Health Service is facing structural challenges regarding sustainability, resource management, and staffing. In Puglia, Professor Antonio Giovanni Solimando, President of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine (SIMI) for Puglia and Basilicata, emphasizes that healthcare efficiency must balance economic rigor with the quality and equity of care. He highlights the critical role of internal medicine in managing complex patients with multiple chronic conditions, noting that as medicine becomes more specialized, there is an increasing need for clinicians capable of synthesizing diverse diagnostic and therapeutic information.

Parallel to these organizational concerns, there are calls for radical reforms to address personnel shortages. Proposed changes include replacing traditional, bureaucratic public competitions for nurses and social-health workers (OSS) with direct hiring processes based on professional experience and merit. To improve the attractiveness of the public sector, experts suggest increasing salaries to align with European standards, providing corporate welfare such as meal vouchers, and offering housing solutions for healthcare professionals.