Chronic patients, news in Lombardy
The continuous increase in chronic cases - as indicated by the Lombardy Region website - is about 3.5 million people suffering from chronic pathologies that commit the social and health system with different care needs - changing demographic conditions, the need to lighten the health system and the development and widespread use of new technologies, have led the Lombardy Region to establish a new assistance process for so-called chronic patients.
The goal is to improve the quality of the assistance service for these patients, but also to lighten the health system, as today, the care of these people absorbs about 70% of the resources.
This is a reform concerning chronic patients, that is, people who must regularly undergo periodic checks or recurrent drug therapies, continuous monitoring and defined deadlines. In order to ensure that these people continue and increase the possibility of being assisted in the best possible way, a dedicated recruitment path has been activated in Lombardy.
Letter for the take-over route
As indicated by a video posted on the Lombardy Region website, a letter will arrive, or has arrived, at the home of some citizens suffering from chronic pathologies, through which it will be possible to choose whether or not to adhere to this path of taking charge of chronicity and fragility.
In particular, starting from 15 January 2018, citizens with chronic diseases assisted in Lombardy for at least two years, are invited by the Health Protection Agency (the new ATS) territorially competent to adhere to the new opportunity to have a "manager" .
Tutor-manager: yes or no to the chronically ill manager
Once the invitation has been accepted, the citizen will choose the "manager" - who will be a doctor, a pediatrician (in truth, a low percentage of these have joined the new reform, as reported by Il Corriere.it) or a private hospital and welfare organization or public - in charge of following your health needs, with which you will sign an annual “Care Pact”.
Subsequently, the "Individual Assistance Plan" (PAI) will also be drawn up, with all the prescriptions necessary for the management of chronic diseases of which the patient suffers. From that moment the manager will accompany the patient on the course of treatment, planning visits, examinations (indicated in a list that includes those inserting the pathology) and more, supporting him during his personal therapeutic plan.
The person who will receive the aforementioned letter may also refuse the indicated care path and then say no to the manager, simply by not replying to the letter and continuing to refer to their primary care physician for treatment assistance.
The issue itself is still quite complex, many speak of "flop" health (Corriere.it) and the same TAR (Quotidianosanità.it) had rejected the appeal carried out by various associations against this reform.
