Roundup: Media report on Italian health system draws mixed reactions

A recent report of la Repubblica newspaper on the inefficiencies of Italian public health system has drawn mixed reactions from experts and citizens.

After contacting hospitals throughout Italy, the Rome-based newspaper reported that it can need up to 500 days to schedule a medical examination.

It can take over a year, for example, to arrange a mammogram, while 164 days can be the necessary waiting time for an eye exam and 189 days for an orthopedic appointment, the report said.

According to the findings, there are difficulties everywhere. The less developed south of Italy is more in trouble. Such as a symptomatic mammogram has recorded waiting time of 478 days in Naples, southern Italy, while 441 days in Turin, northern Italy, the report underlined.

Local experts, however, called upon people to be very cautious with these figures which they said generally refer to non-urgent medical examinations and are very different from one hospital to another.

One of the examples cited in the report was Molinette hospital in Turin. "This report made us worried and irritated," Maurizio Dall'Acqua, health director at Italy's largest medical center AOU City of Health and Science of Turin, told Xinhua.

Molinette is just one of the four hospitals included in the center and not the one dedicated to women's health., Dall'Acqua noted.

"At the S. Anna hospital, the seat of our breast unit, the waiting time is less than one week," he pointed out. The Molinette hospital is only minimally involved in mammograms, and even there urgent cases are examined within three days, he added.

Cinzia Maria Re was a patient who has just had a knee surgery. She told Xinhua, "I had a ski accident in December. Doctors at a Milan public hospital said I would have to wait about six months for a surgery," stressing that the doctors made it clear that her knee's situation will not worsen.

In fact, waiting several months is not uncommon for many patients who have the same ordinary problem, she noted.

"But I wanted to fix my knee as quick as possible and so I decided to turn to the private health system, though at the same hospital. I spent nearly 20,000 euros (22,481 U.S. dollars) to have an immediate surgery and spend the night in a single room, " Re said.

She added that the price difference was huge when compared to the Italian public system. "Fortunately I had an insurance so that I could afford to pay the difference," Re said.

She also added it is fundamental to highlight that the doctors and treatments provided by the public and private systems in Italy are exactly the same. "The only difference was no waiting time and accommodation in a single room," she pointed out.

Another patient named Pietro Fiordalisi said, based on his own experience, that waiting time are very different from one public hospital to another. "In the same region, I met with hospitals that offered me waiting time ranging from six months to one week for the same examination."

Fiordalisi had a car accident a few days ago and was first taken to a public hospital in Milan and later decided to turn to the private system.

"The Italian public health system has great professionals, advanced technologies and efficient structures. It just needs to manage its human resources better," he said. Endit