Limit the discretion of the Regions in the appointment of the general directors of the Local Health Authorities by obliging them to choose from a list of suitable candidates, at national level, prepared with transparent criteria. This is the main change envisaged by one of the implementing decrees of the Public Administration reform approved last summer. The provision consists of nine articles and should arrive tomorrow in the Council of Ministers.
The list of suitable candidates - as Lorenzo Salvia explains today in Il Corriere della Sera - will be prepared every two years by a commission of five members, of which two chosen by the Ministry of Health, two by the State-Regions Conference and one by the National Agency for health services. The selection criteria will be different: age under 65, university degree, management experience of at least five years and participation in healthcare management training courses. The final choice will be up to the president of the Region, who however will no longer have the freedom he has today.
The decree also provides that after two years a regional commission will evaluate the general managers for how they have pursued the health objectives (for example the reduction of the infant mortality rate or the prescribing appropriateness, i.e. the fact that doctors do not prescribe too many drugs which then weigh on the budgets of the Regions). In case of rejection, the number one of the local health company will lose his job and may also be canceled from the list of suitable candidates.
