Caserta, 68 family doctors leave: user queues

Caserta, 68 family doctors leave: user queues. Inconveniences in some municipalities but ASL reassures: replacements appointed.

Queues and inconveniences have plagued thousands of Caserta healthcare users who have found themselves without a family doctor in recent weeks, following the departure of 68 registered physicians; many have retired, some have left voluntarily, and others have had their regular appointments expired. To address the shortages, the Region has appointed the 68 remaining doctors, and various professionals are taking up their duties—there are a total of between 540 and 560 family doctors in the Caserta area—although two who had signed on have somewhat surprisingly decided to resign.

So many citizens found themselves standing in long lines to choose their new GP, especially in Santa Maria Capua Vetere and Maddaloni; few ASL employees at the counters, it was decided to work on Saturdays too, but they can do about 600 procedures a day, and each doctor can have up to 1500 patients.

"By the first days of October - explains the general director of the Caserta ASL, Amedeo Blasotti - All the appointed family doctors will take up their duties and have their own patients, and thus the inconveniences citizens have been experiencing in recent days will cease. Of course, the two who suddenly left after signing the regional contract are causing us some problems, but we will overcome them.

There is moderate optimism among the ASL general management offices, also because the previous situation was even more serious than the current one.

"Last year - explains Blasotti, who took over the leadership of the ASL a month ago - We had a shortage of general practitioners, with nearly 100 Caserta residents without a family doctor. But now we're getting out of this situation."

For Francesco Frascaria, director of the Primary Care Unit of the Caserta Local Health Authority, "In all my years of career, I have never seen such a high number of doctors leave all at once as this year. Just think that in the entire Region there is a shortage of 410 doctors."

Enzo Iodice, health director of the Caserta Local Health Authority, explains that "the situation in Caserta and the entire Campania region isn't that serious compared to other areas where foreign doctors have been called in (in Calabria, ed.), even though the situation in general medicine is set to worsen in the coming years.".

The future, in fact, seems even bleaker than the present, given that the general practitioner training school churns out 60 professionals a year and is therefore unable to fill the existing shortages, despite offering contracts to final-year students. In 2023, the number of family doctors retiring will be equal to or greater than this year, meaning the situation will be very dire in 3-4 years.

"The limited number system in Medicine needs to be reviewed - says Blasotti - And more widespread communication must be made to citizens, who must know that the law provides that those who cannot access a GP can go to the local health authority district where they live, where they will find a general practitioner who can assist them and write a prescription, just like a family doctor."