The pandemic that struck the world in 2020 like an unrelenting tsunami represents a clear dividing line, at least in Italy, between what existed before the wave and what remains after.
It is undeniable that some critical issues emerged with dramatic clarity: slow bureaucratic procurement processes, staff shortages, and the regional healthcare system unraveling in many areas. Despite this, the system held up, and the darkest part of the long Covid night now seems to be giving way to new visions and widespread awareness. Today, on the eve of the second August 15th with swimsuits and masks, the first 24 billion euros from the PNRR have arrived in Italy, and it is certainly on the here and now that we must focus.
Now is the time to activate ideas, network, streamline, and modernize the only sector that defines a country’s level of civilization: the healthcare sector. A restructuring and integration of services can no longer be postponed; the cornerstones of the new system must be based on better management of chronic conditions, active aging, and promoting health as a common good. Investing in health pays off, as the Covid pandemic has shown with glaring evidence: when public health enters an emergency, the economy is almost annihilated, personal freedoms are restricted, and our closest loved ones are threatened.
Let us therefore focus on reorganizing the system, adopting a new approach that precisely measures performance and data, not to generate mere economic profit but to create what underpins a thriving economy: a healthy society. Investing in healthcare, managing the chronic conditions of fragile patients to which an aging society is certainly exposed, maintaining an effective level of prevention and care, and having a proactive system is the prerequisite for any country that aspires to play a role in the global economic arena. Economic well-being is a consequence of the health of the population, not a prerequisite. Of course, without resources, it is difficult to guarantee services, but now the resources are available. Let’s use them. Let today be the dividing line between an outdated 20th-century model of care and a modern vision of active prevention, asset efficiency, and crisis management. The tools are available: new models of reception, accessibility, humanization, and efficiency of operating blocks, patient and staff safety. Today, funding is also beginning to arrive. The model of the new Italian Healthcare is here and now.
