2024-01-19 16:28:15
by Chiara Daina
This was announced by the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci in the Chamber in response to a parliamentary question, after the wave of controversy that was unleashed by the failure to extend the Fund in the latest budget law
It can be said that the objective, at least in part, has been achieved. The Fund to fight eating disorders, if only for this year, will be refinanced with 10 million euros, as announced by the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci on 17 January in the Chamber in response to a parliamentary question, after the wave of controversy that arose due to the failure to extend the Fund in the latest budget law. The new resources will be allocated with an amendment to the Milleproroghe decree (which should be voted on next week by the Social Affairs commission and in early February by the Chamber of Deputies). But it’s not enough.
Present disease
Now the real challenge is to recognize eating disorders as an existing disease in the LEAs (the essential levels of assistance that the National Health Service is required to provide to all citizens, ed.), separated from the psychiatric one, with autonomous and stable financial coverage over time. , just as has been done for autism, points out Laura Dalla Ragione, director of the Eating Disorders Services Network of the Umbria 1 Local Health Authority, leading the Working Table on Eating Disorders of the Ministry of Health. And this is what the Regions also strongly hope for, surprised to have somehow ended up in the crosshairs of the minister’s speech.
25 million fund
In fact, in the Chamber at Montecitorio, Schillaci pointed out that in October 2023, according to what emerged from the interim reports, the Regions and autonomous Provinces had committed 59% of the financing and spent 3% of the total financing of the 25 million euro Fund , established in 2021 to strengthen the network of treatment services for eating disorders.
Final report
Raffaele Donini, councilor for health policies of the Emilia-Romagna region and coordinator of the health commission of the Conference of the Regions, interviewed by Corriere, clarifies those data better. The actual expenses for the clinics for eating disorders will be reported, by 31 October 2024, in the final report required by the decree that established the ad hoc fund, not in the intermediate one of October 2023 – he underlines -. If until three months ago the resources committed (disbursed to the Regions in October 2022, ed.) were just 59%, certainly not due to a lack of initiative, but due to the fact that they are necessary to prepare recruitment competitions, for the completion of all the technical steps required by the regulations, at least six months.
Fixed term
A snapshot of the situation, therefore, must be taken later – reiterates Donini -. I would also add that it is necessary to make the Fund structural, and therefore long-lasting, because only in this way is it possible to provide continuity to the care service and employ permanent staff, avoiding paradoxical situations such as those that are plain for all to see. For example, the fact that few professionals participate in tenders for fixed-term positions, with an alarming detail: psychiatrists and specialists often do not apply for competitions that are for a fixed term, that is, for the duration of the Fund.
Lea update
In short, the message that reaches us is clear – insists the coordinator of the Regions -: the Fund must not only be confirmed, but made structural. In the next update of the Lea, expected for the first half of 2024, Schillaci assured, 16 new outpatient care services will be introduced to be granted in exemption, necessary and appropriate for the monitoring and prevention of complications and worsening of bulimia and anorexia, which added to the previous ones will become 32, the minister specified.
Demonstration
But, insists Dalla Ragione, with a specific permanent budget it is possible to hire the indispensable specialists to train the multidisciplinary teams for the entire management, from the therapeutic connection, in which the patient is motivated to care, treatment and rehabilitation. Demonstrations were organized in around thirty Italian cities, promoted by various organisations, including the University Union, the Middle School Students’ Network and the Fiocchetto Lilla Foundation, to ask for structural investments and give dignity to the many young people who suffer from eating disorders and have the right to be reborn a second time.
Corriere della Sera also on Whatsapp. sufficient click here to subscribe to the channel and always be updated.
January 19, 2024 (modified January 19, 2024 | 4:31 pm)
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
#refinanced #ten #million #euros #time.news