Medical Desertification and National Recovery and Resilience Plan in Italy: Focus on Inner Areas

Abstract

The shortage of doctors and nurses runs through all of Italy, but in peripheral inner areas it takes on the contours of "medical desertification." To what extent does the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), in providing for Community Homes (CHs) and Community Hospitals (HHs), along with ad hoc funds for health personnel [1], respond to this critical issue? What are the prospects for inner areas? The risk is that the problem will not be solved by the funds made available by the NRRP; in fact, only 16-17% of Community Homes and Hospitals will be built in these areas. This means that the future of peripheral and ultraperipheral inner areas in Italy is at stake. The detailed analysis, conducted in Italy by Cittadinanzattiva, is part of the European project AHEAD [2], "Action for Health and Equity: Addressing Medical Deserts," funded by the EU4Health program to find solutions to these " medical deserts."