What are the possible consequences for healthcare and what will be the approach of the new government to the National Recovery Plan (NRRP)?

After the victory at the national election on the 25th of September, the right-wing coalition has expressed its will. The path to forming the new government seemed in some moments on the step of being wrecked, first Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, who had imposed the priority of receiving the Ministry of the Interior, then Berlusconi with his pro-Putin outings that risked shattering the possibility of forming the government, without talking about the vote of Senator La Russa as the new president of the Senate.

President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella nominates Giorgia Meloni as Prime Minister

On the 21st of October, the President of the Republic nominated Giorgia Meloni the new Prime Minister, she is the first woman to cover this role in Italian history, well known for her past in the far-right formations MSI – Neo-fascist party. Her political career started in Rome, in Garbatella’s neighbourhood, she was born there in 1977 and already in 1996, she became the national coordinator of the Youth Formation of the MSI.

In 2008, after an astonishing career inside MSI successor party– Alleanza Nazionale, she was appointed vice president of the Chamber of the Deputies in 2006 and then in 2008 chosen by President Silvio Berlusconi to cover the role of Minister of Youth in his 4th Government.

Then in November 2012, after the fall of Berlusconi’s government for financial instability and scandals, she announced her candidacy for the centre-right primaries, but once again Berlusconi decided to cancel those. She left the People Freedom Party and created with ex-AN companions a new party – Fratelli D’Italia (Brothers of Italy) which is now the party that leads the right-wing coalition and that received the most votes during the last elections.

The new government receive the trust of the Parliament, and now is officially in office

On the 25th of October, Meloni’s government received the trust from the Parliament and is now De Jure and De Facto in place. Her speech in front of the Deputies has underpinned the difficulties that the new government has called to resolve in the next months, from the rise of inflation to energy costs, she has mentioned the international geopolitical situation and the role of Italy within NATO and in the EU.

Apart from that, she reminded the pandemic times, saying that there will never be another lockdown in Italy, she stated that those rules were against personal freedom and constitutional rights, so they cannot be repeated. The opinion of the right-wing government on the fact of healthcare is reported in the electoral program and contrasts with other constitutional rights that protect the dignity and the possibility to receive cures.

The government has already set up new rules that give the possibility to anti-vax medical personnel to return to service after being exonerated from their workplace during the pandemic. Furthermore, they let the restrictions expire that obliged doctors and medical staff to wear protective masks during their service.

The newly appointed Minister of Health and the challenges to overcome

The new Minister of Health – Dr Orazio Schillaci, rector of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and President of the National Society of Nuclear Medicine – SIMN spent most of his career in the scientific community, without a broad political background. He was probably chosen by Giorgia Meloni to not risk to face a possible problem when her government will call for a cut in the budget, already reported by the Nadef – the economic document that set the Public Budget, and which will decrease the expenses in the Public Healthcare by 15 Billions euro within 2025.

The problems that the Ministry should face are different and complicated, the two years of the pandemic have exacerbated long-lasting problems in the NHS, such as a chronic deficiency of doctors and medical staff, in particular those in emergency & urgent care. Other problems regard the southern regions, those are the ones that struggle more in aligning with standards and costs set by the annual budget and that foreseen the biggest challenges both in terms of medical staff and devices.

The National Recovery Plan, which has a budget of around 20 billion euros for healthcare, could be a huge opportunity in reducing the disparity between North and South but it will need both a reliable set of reforms and a high grade of project management capacities which are currently lacking in many of these regions.

What’s new for the pharma and medical devices industry?

The new government will not drive major changes in the current NHS systems, policymakers will try to continue the work done by the precedent government, developing the projects contained within the NRRP investments plan. On the NRRP the only thing that the government may do is to discuss on the reallocation of parts of the resources due to the rise of costs and the possibility to redefine the priorities.

On the side of the Covid-19 pandemic, there will probably be a switch between how the situation has been governed until now, and how they would like to do in the future. It is fresh news that the government has chosen to readmit anti-vax medical staff and has also abolished the obligation of wearing masks inside the medical facilities.

We will not assist with major political changes, but it is well known that the Covid-19 restrictions will have a more Laisze Fair approach, it is very likely that the government and its Minister will do everything possible to not impose any restrictions if the situation would face a worsening in the future.