Sanità snobbata, ancora una volta

The 2025 Budget Law, just presented, is a cold shower for all healthcare personnel, confirming cuts and lack of investment that threaten to further sink a system already in crisis. The maneuver promises ridiculous and distant increases, failing to meet expectations and leaving doctors, healthcare managers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals without the resources needed to face the daily challenges of a National Health Service (SSN) now in agony.

The planned increases are nothing short of offensive: 17 euros net for doctors and 14 euros net for healthcare managers in 2025, with a more significant increase only in 2026 for doctors, who will see an increase of 115 euros, but still zero for healthcare managers. The situation for nurses and other healthcare professions under law 43/2006 is even more disheartening: 7 euros in 2025 and 80 euros in 2026. To make matters worse, these amounts will be tied to a contract that will not be discussed for another two years, meaning that the real benefits may never arrive, or at least, not in a timely manner.

This management of resources is not only disappointing, but represents a real affront to those working on the front lines. Healthcare workers are forced to struggle with exhausting shifts, increasing assaults, and unsustainable working conditions, with salaries that remain shamefully low compared to the European average.

An inevitable strike

The unions Anaao Assomed, Cimo-Fesmed, and Nursing Up have called a 24-hour national strike for November 20, coinciding with the demonstration already scheduled in Rome, to give voice to a now inevitable protest. Healthcare personnel can no longer remain silent in the face of policies that seem aimed at pushing doctors and nurses to leave public healthcare to seek better opportunities elsewhere, often in the private sector or abroad.

Despite the government having announced an increase in the National Healthcare Requirement of 1.3 billion for 2025, it is far from the 3.7 billion initially planned, a figure that could have given some relief to a system that has suffered from chronic staff and resource shortages for too long.

We cannot remain silent in the face of yet another mockery of healthcare personnel and citizens.

The problems afflicting public healthcare are well known: endless waiting lists, increasing assaults, and resources being allocated to private healthcare, while public sector workers have been waiting for almost 20 years for a real contract renewal, with salaries below the OECD average.

Attention must be paid to the economic rights of healthcare personnel and to safeguarding everyone's right to health. We cannot resign ourselves to the blatant privatization of healthcare. What is at stake is the protection of the health of all of us. Today more than ever, doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals are asking for the support of citizens in their battle to defend the National Health Service, the most precious institution of our country.

The demonstration and strike on November 20 will be only the first step in a struggle that will not stop until rights and dignity are guaranteed to those who take care of the health of others every day.
There will be free buses from Emilia Romagna, updates coming soon.

Nursing Up Emilia Romagna