How do you return to treatment? Recover skipping visits and exams due to Covid

Hundreds of thousands of visits, exams, surgeries, and screenings for cancer, diabetes and other illnesses have been “skipped” in the past year due to the coronavirus. A picture showing how the epidemic, in addition to the difficulties and deaths it directly causes, threatens to generate another long wave that must be fixed. Andrea Costa, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and Ana Lisa Mandorino, Secretary General of Cittadinanzattiva, will try to provide answers to the topic of how to recover lost time, what are the resources and plans, during the new conversation “How to return to treatment? Restore visits and exams skipped due to Covid” scheduled for today Monday 14 June at 5 pm at” Allies for Health “- the new portal dedicated to scientific medical information created by Novartis Italia. To register and participate in the talk, you can click here.

According to some of the data that came out of the report “Let’s get back to taking care of ourselves. Health professionals and citizens: between Covid and health needs” – created by Cittadinanzattiva in cooperation with the Federation of General Practitioners – the most reported inconveniences are related to the cancellation of visits and examinations already booked (ultrasound examinations, etc.). of services provided to cancer patients) before the outbreak of the epidemic (49.9%). In 34.4% of cases, citizens reported the difficulty of booking new visits and examinations, and in some cases this is impossible due to the “indefinite blocking” of waiting lists. All this increases the risk that emerging diseases will not be intercepted in time. According to data from the Italian Society of Medical Oncology (AIOM) reported in the XXIII Pit Salute Report by Cittadinanzattiva, in the first five months of 2020, about one million four hundred thousand screening tests were performed in Italy less than were performed in the same period In 2019, cancer diagnoses fell by more than half, 64% of surgeries were cancelled, and 70% of patients discontinued rehabilitation. Moreover, given that in Italy there are about 24 million people with chronic diseases, half of whom have co-morbidities, it is clear that the changes imposed by the epidemic have had a significant impact on this category of patients.

Today, once the acute phase of the pandemic has been overcome, the health system has to deal with the deterioration of critical matters already pre-Covid, as a result of a ten-year limitation, and exacerbation of regulatory issues, such as waiting lists. . We need an efficient, effective and timely system for the implementation of measures to restore performance by regions. The talk will address the issue in 360 degrees to provide answers to this “emergency in an emergency” and to provide concrete tools and implementation that ensure equal access to care.