After the requests of many trade associations and trade unions, the government has second thoughts. During the Council of Ministers chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, concerning the Milleproroghe law decree, it was announced that the intention is to extend the electronic prescription via text message or email for a year, until the end of 2023. A provision will then be needed ad hoc to make the standard structural.
The rule of the use of pharmaceutical prescriptions even remotely (via email or text message) introduced with the Covid pandemic, was expiring at the end of December and from January it should have return to your family doctor. Immediately a chorus of appeals arose.
They have been the same doctors in the front line to report the problem to the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci: «We ask the extension, beyond the deadline of 31 December 2022, of the use of the dematerialized prescription for at least one year and one measure which makes its use structural, so as to free the doctors from improper bureaucratic burdensHe said Pina Onotri, general secretary of the Italian Doctors Union (Smi), who reports that there is already one lack of family doctors throughout Italy, and loading them with additional work can be risky. The return to the paper recipe – he adds – “would represent a step back, causando long waits in medical offices". Freeing doctors from bureaucratic burdens "allows the enhancement of the profession, counteracting the exodus from the category, and giving the possibility of using more time for patient care and assistance".
"We have consulted the minister's secretariat and we expect a positive response on a possible extension," said the president of the Fnomceo, Filippo Rings. "We know that the issue is on the table and we are sure that the minister will show his attention to the subject," confirms Silvestro Scotti, national secretary of general practitioners.
The digital prescription has been a valuable aid for citizens
Now that ordinance that had made life easier for citizens is about to expire. And to avoid the farewell to electronic prescription a new executive order is needed. Also Anna Lisa Mandorino, general secretary of Cittadinanzattiva, asks to don't waste an opportunity: “The electronic prescription has been an invaluable tool during the pandemic. Citizens appreciate it because it simplifies procedures, reduces bureaucracy and allows doctors to spend more time listening to patients, especially the most fragile". More generally, adds Mandorino, "digital healthcare is a benefit especially in contexts where the distance from the doctor's office would force, for example, elderly people to ask a family member for help".
Malavasi (Pd): "Let's avoid stepping back"
To urge the government is even the opposition. «It seems clear to me that putting an end to the provision would be a step backwards would penalize citizens, especially, those with chronic illnesses,” he says Ilenia Malavasi, Pd deputy in the social affairs commission - A government that fills its mouth with the words innovation and digitization should explain why it has not yet renewed a rule of civilization and common sense. We ask Minister Schillaci when he intends to intervene otherwise from January 10 he will have to go back to the family doctor to get the prescription. A folly”.
The extension of the obligation to wear a mask in the hospital
Another health measure linked to the pandemic expires on 31 December: theobligation to use the mask in hospitals and nursing homes. "It will be extended again, at least until spring," says Minister Schillaci. The new measure is expected shortly and has already been welcomed by the experts ("an excellent decision" comments Walter Ricciardi, professor of hygiene at the Catholic University of Rome). “Someone said that we wanted to remove the obligation to wear a mask and then we changed our mind. This is not the case – Schillaci clarifies – because wearing masks in the hospital is a form of respect for the weakest patients”. And then he adds: “The emergency is now largely over. We are in an endemic phase, we have to learn to live with this virus, but we are much more relaxed. After two and a half years we are leaving this terrible experience behind. And after so much suffering and restriction, we can finally experience a serene family Christmas ".
