Italy's health system faces severe doctor shortages

A growing shortage of medical staff is straining Italy’s public health system. At the San Luca Hospital in Vallo della Lucania, a lack of specialists in surgery, orthopaedics, urology and other fields forces the transfer of patients to other facilities. Union leader Biagio Tomasco warned that “the risk is that citizens in peripheral areas are treated as second‑class, deprived of rapid and safe emergency care.”

In Lombardy’s town of Settala, General Practitioner Antonio Pasini is operating at a reduced capacity after a leg injury, leaving more than 2,000 patients with limited access to primary care during the summer.

In Emilia‑Romagna, a software mismatch following the abolition of mandatory therapeutic plans for atrial fibrillation patients blocks the issuance of anticoagulant prescriptions for about 80,000 people. Regional lawmaker Pietro Vignali called the situation “grave and dangerous” and demanded an immediate fix.

The Gimbe foundation’s president Nino Cartabellotta highlighted a longer‑term crisis, noting that personnel spending fell from 39.7 % to 36.6 % of health budgets between 2012 and 2024, prompting doctors and nurses to leave the public system for the private sector or abroad. Over 90,000 doctors are already outside the National Health Service, and local officials such as Mayor Pasquini have flagged a lack of pediatricians.

Collectively, these reports underscore acute staffing gaps, administrative glitches, and a declining health‑care workforce that threaten the delivery of essential services across Italy.