The home as the first place of care.
This is the "fundamental key" of the health reform according to the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza.
Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, who coordinates the Health and Social Care Reform Commission, even speaks of "a dream" in the face of over 1.3 million elderly people with severe mobility difficulties who live without help.
How to make this dream come true is at the heart of Confcooperative Sanità's Digital Debate "Value and dignity to the person", organized together with the Consenso Europa company.
The proposals of the president of Confcooperative Sanità, Giuseppe Milanese, are the same as always: "a single national direction, which overcomes the impasses originated by Title V, constituting a model of care continuity centered on the home". And now, after the pandemic and with the push of European funds, it could be "the most suitable historical moment" to make them concrete. In this sense, the recovery and resilience plan (NRP) could "serve as a driving force" and create new jobs. Guaranteeing 240 hours of assistance a year to one million elderly people would mean employing 112,000 specialized operators.
Minister Speranza sets an ambitious goal "to become the first country in Europe for home care". The champions to beat are Germany and Sweden with about 9% of over 65s assisted at home, Italy exceeded the OECD average of 6% only with the relaunch decree (before the pandemic it was 4%). "We want to exceed 10% and I believe that we must do it with a large public investment and also with an ability to build relationships with all worlds, with all the people who at all levels are committed in this direction", says the minister.
The Minister for Disabilities, Erika Stefani, underlines that, in a context of increasingly territorial, capillary and widespread services, "specific attention" must be given to the handicapped.
"We work - explains the minister - to make the individual life project effective, where the person must become the protagonist and the services must be tailored like a tailored suit".
Many speeches by parliamentarians, starting with the vice president of the Senate, Paola Taverna, who sees in the pnrr "a unique opportunity to correct, rebuild and restart, imagining new solutions in the health and social welfare fields, after decades of wicked management of health and public resources ".
The transition is "historic", according to Monsignor Paglia, but we risk missing it if the PNRR does not provide for the "continuum of care", which provides for the entire spectrum of services needed by the over 65s in the home, semi-residential and residential sectors. "It doesn't seem to me that it has passed", the archbishop observes, but it is "the heart of the reform".