Many Italians risk being left without a family doctor and more than 10 thousand aspiring general practitioners will be sidelined despite being deserving. This is – second Consulcesi – the foreseeable result of the next ones entry test for the specific training course in General Medicine, which will be held on April 28 throughout Italy. Each Region provides aspiring family doctors with a certain number of places, which can be accessed by passing a test with 100 questions. Inevitably – continues Consulcesi – thousands will be discarded. The consequences do not only affect the career of these young doctors who, in the face of this absurd Italian training funnel, many will decide to flee abroad. But also on the efficiency of the national health system and consequently on the quality of care and assistance offered to citizens.
According to the estimates of the Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg) in Italy there are too few family doctors and they will be even fewer in the coming years. In 2-3 years, in the face of numerous retirements, a shortage of staff is estimated ranging from 10 thousand to 15 thousand units. “It is unacceptable, especially in this period of emergency, in which territorial medicine represents a key hub for the management of the pandemic”, says Massimo Tortorella, president of Consulcesi.
Against a number of candidates equal to 11,704, there are only 1302 places available. This means 89% will be discarded. Only 1 in 10, in fact, will make it. In addition to the scarcity of available places, there are also the delays with which the new competition notices are announced. The result is that the chronic shortage of family doctors will worsen a little throughout the country, from Lombardy to Sicily.
“We thus risk finding ourselves without family doctors in a probably post-pandemic context with an increasingly elderly and sick population”, says Tortorella. “If there is one thing that this emergency has taught us, it is that local medicine has an inestimable strategic value”, he adds.
To avoid that the damage caused by the limited number of places available is also added to the insult of being rejected for reasons that have nothing to do with the test, Consulcesi intends to monitor the correct conduct of the tests and, in the event of irregularities, has activated a free help desk at 800 189 091 in which to collect reports. The Consulcesi lawyers will evaluate the information to understand if it is possible to proceed with a formal appeal.
Among the irregularities to keep an eye on are any “tampering” with the packages containing the test, unscheduled classroom changes, suggestions or interactions between candidates and finally the introduction of smartphones, tablets, manuals or any other material. To avoid having the test canceled, in addition to respecting the rules, it is good to remember to use only and exclusively the black pen provided and not to correct the same question more than once.