First Civic Survey on Health Personnel in Italy. On the Front Line but in the Shadows: Behind the Scenes of the National Health Service
Mariano Votta1*, Maria Vitale2, Maria Eugenia Morreale3, Bianca Ferraiolo4
1Director, Active Citizenship Network, c/o Cittadinanzattiva APS, Via Imera, 2 - 00183 Rome, Italy
2Senior Project Manager - Civic Evaluation Agency at Cittadinanzattiva APS, Via Imera, 2 - 00183 Rome, Italy
3Project Manager - Civic Evaluation Agency at Cittadinanzattiva APS, Via Imera, 2 - 00183 Rome, Italy
4Head of the Representative Office to the EU, Senior Manager EU Affairs - Active Citizenship Network, Rue Philippe Le Bon 46, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Correspondence to: Mariano Votta, Director, Active Citizenship Network, c/o Cittadinanzattiva APS, Via Imera, 2 - 00183 Rome, Italy. E-mail: m.votta@cittadinanzattiva.it
Received: February 08, 2024; Accepted: March 11, 2024; Published: April 30, 2024
Citation: Votta M, Vitale M, Morreale ME, Ferraiolo B. First Civic Survey on Health Personnel in Italy. On the Front Line but in the Shadows: Behind the Scenes of the National Health Service. Arch Med Res Health Sci. 2024;6(1):01-15.
Copyright: © 2024 Votta M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
ABSTRACT
The health personnel, a fundamental pillar of the Italian care system, is going through a season of crisis with considerable concern on the part of all stakeholders, institutional and non-institutional. This publication highlights the main findings of the first civic survey on health personnel in Italy, carried out by the Italian NGO Cittadinanzattiva in collaboration with the FNOPI, FNO TSRM, and PSTRP Federations. A study that provides insight into how 10,000 workers, representing 20 different health professions live their professional condition.
Starting from the main institutional data, a civic reading of the phenomena and criticalities concerning the health workforce in Italy was produced, probing the reasons why health professionals stay or flee from the National Health Service in Italy, but also representing the attention to the issue in a dimension that is not only national but also European, since the phenomenon does not only concern Italy. Given the European elections, what steps should be taken as a priority to address this urgent problem? Neglecting the health workforce crisis jeopardizes current and future preventive and care options for citizens. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are essential within healthcare systems, ensuring the well-being of citizens and fostering trust in the system. Their support - from a public policy perspective - is paramount.
KEYWORDS
Healthcare professionals (HCPs); European Commission; Health Workforce Emergency; European Elections; National Health Service; European Patients' Rights Day; European Health Union.
