A ranking on healthcare service provision by the Gimbe foundation, which states that Lombardy has lost 14 points, has ignited a political controversy in the region.
Pierfrancesco Majorino, head of the Democratic Party (PD) group, declared the region is “the second worst” and that “a profound change is necessary.” Nicola De Marco, head of the Five Star Movement (M5S) group, stated that “a dutiful self-criticism by the right is needed” alongside a change of course.
The undersecretary for Autonomy, Mauro Piazza, was quick to respond, asserting that “Gimbe, Majorino, and Di Marco would do well not to distort or exploit official data from the Ministry of Health, or learn to read and contextualize them.”
Majorino countered, “This is also a warning for the governing right: the Lombard model is wrong, and heading in the direction of pushed privatization is insane. In a few weeks, the regional council will see a popular initiative bill that collected over 100,000 signatures to reform the regional health service; it is an opportunity the Lombard right cannot afford to waste.”
De Marco observed, “The Gimbe data highlights results that are not random, but the outcome of political choices and the trajectory imposed by the center-right on our regional health service. A trajectory heading straight for the abyss, made of endless wait times, unavailable general practitioners, collapsing hospitals, and community health centers empty of staff and services. At this rate, one wonders how long it can still hold up.”
Piazza, however, claimed that “the Lombardy Region shows a profile of compliance with the Essential Levels of Assistance (LEA) above the threshold (60) in all three areas of care: prevention, district, and hospital—anything but a loss of 14 points.”
He concluded, “The 2023 picture does not indicate a loss of 14 points: the overall scores show maintenance or slight improvement in some areas and only slight declines in others. These data reiterate the importance of consulting official sources for an accurate and contextualized reading.”