Doctors: “We expect a positive response”
“We have consulted the Minister’s Secretariat about the clause, indicated the deadline, and we expect a positive response on a possible extension,” said Fnomceo President Filippo Anelli. Silvestro Scotti, National Secretary for General Practitioners, declared: “We know the issue is on the table, and we are sure the Minister ‘will show interest in the matter’.”
The order to be renewed
Technically, the Council Presidency Ordinance should be renewed and extended – according to the Federation of SMI Physicians and Active Citizenship. “We ask the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, to extend beyond the deadline set on December 31, 2022, the use of the dematerialized prescription for at least one year and a condition that makes its use structural,” so that doctors are “free,” said Pina Onotri, general secretary of the union. Italian Doctors (SMI): “an indecent bureaucratic burden”.
SMI sent a letter to Minister Schillaci making this request. “Family physicians, continuity of care and regional emergency physicians are unavailable throughout Italy and at the same time overburdened by inconvenient bureaucracy, with ever-decreasing time available for clinical activity,” explains Onotri.
Back to the paper recipe
Going back to a paper prescription as it was before the Covid emergency, Onutri concludes, “would represent a leap backwards, causing long waiting times in doctors’ offices. The interim solution we hope is at least a one-year extension of delivery.”
missed opportunity? –
Cittadinanzattiva General Secretary Ana-Lisa Mandorino also spoke of a missed opportunity due to a possible failure to extend the use of electronic prescriptions. “Digital health care, in general, – explains Mandorino – and in its small way, even a non-physical prescription is of great benefit especially in contexts, such as domestic areas, where the distance from the doctor’s office, or the sometimes difficult circumstances that exist in which access to it, will force, to For example, the elderly to seek help from a family member.
electronic prescription
The non-physical prescription is the electronic version of the traditional red paper prescription and has been implemented in Italy in recent years, but as of 2020 it is still accompanied by a paper note which is collected at the doctor’s office.
The Decree of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, published in the Official Gazette on March 21, 2020, stipulates the possibility of using alternative tools for the paper note and stipulates that when the electronic prescription is issued by the doctor, the patient can request the release. of the non-physical note or electronic prescription number.
The electronic prescription provides complete computerization of the entire life cycle of the traditional paper SSN prescription, otherwise called red prescription. It envisages the complete elimination of paper support (dematerialization), compatible with alternative methods of protecting the delivery of medicines or services even when there is no electronic communication.
“Food expert. Unapologetic bacon maven. Beer enthusiast. Pop cultureaholic. General travel scholar. Total internet buff.”
