There are at least 840 pediatricians in Italy and everyone must follow at least 100 children over the maximum threshold of 800 children to be assisted each, with peaks of over 1,000 assisted in Piedmont, Tuscany and the Province of Bolzano. This is reported by the Gimbe Foundation, which speaks of families increasingly in difficulty with large regional differences.

In absolute terms, the national average is 896 patients per doctor and at regional level only Umbria (784), Sardinia (788), Sicily (792) and Molise (798) remain below the ceiling without derogations; 17 regions, on the other hand, exceed the average of 800 assisted of which Piedmont (1,092), the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (1,060) and Tuscany (1,057) go beyond the average of 1,000 assisted. From 2019 to 2021 these professionals affiliated with the national health service decreased by 5.5% and the mechanisms for calculating needs seem to be incapable, according to an analysis by the Gimbe Foundation.

"The alarm on the shortage of pediatricians of free choice - says Nino Cartabellotta President of the Gimbe Foundation - today is launched by parents of all regions, from North to South with narratives where bureaucratic issues intertwine, lack of answers from the ASL, pediatricians with exorbitant numbers of assisted, up to the impossibility of exercising the right to enroll their children in the family pediatrician with potential health risks, in particular of the smallest and most fragile".

Paediatric shortage alarm: -5.5% between 2019 and 2021

According to the latest update of the Agenas report The National Health Service Staff in 2021 in Italy there were 7,022 pediatricians of free choice in activity, or 386 less than in 2019 (-5.5%). In addition, according to the NHS Statistical Yearbook 2021, PLS with over 23 years of specialization have gone from 39% in 2009 to 80% in 2021. "A figure that adds to the shortage of PLS the lack of generational change that with the retirements of the coming years risks creating a real 'abyss' of pediatric care". So Nino Cartabellotta.