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The Ministry of the University has not yet published the final ranking of the competition in which 24,000 doctors participated last September to take specialization courses, and therefore start their first work experience in the hospital.
If everything had gone according to plan, the start date of the courses would have been December 30, 2020. But the results of the national competition are blocked by appeals to the State Council and the delays that followed. In short, there is great uncertainty: thousands of doctors do not know when they will be able to start specialization in hospital wards. This year, the ministry has awarded 14,455 graduate scholarships, more than 5,000 more than the 8,920 last year.
In recent days there have been protests in many cities, with demonstrations organized by doctors in Milan, Rome, Florence, Verona, Siena, Pescara and Genoa. Future trainees have also been mobilized by sending mass emails and messages to journalists or popularizer, to ask to tell your story.
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What is specialization
The degree in medicine and surgery lasts for six years. After graduation, he is a full-fledged doctor, but to practice in the national health service he must specialize. Doctors who want to specialize must participate in the national competition and, if successful, attend the chosen specialization course, which lasts from two to five years. In the hospital, resident doctors cannot replace regular doctors, but only work under the supervision of a guardian. During the period of specialization, doctors receive a salary: net of deductions, the net salary is approximately 1,650 euros per month for the first two years and between 1,700 and 1,800 euros per month during the following years.
All delays
This year the national competition was held on September 22, more than two months later than in the other years. In 2019, for example, applications were submitted from May 9 to 21, the contest was held on July 2, and the specialization courses had started on November 1. This year, however, the call was published on July 24 and the contest was held on September 22. 23,756 graduates participated for 14,455 places.
One of the causes of the late call was the late designation of the National Observatory for Specialized Medical Education, a very important institution because it defines the criteria for accreditation of university and hospital structures. The Observatory must verify that the hospitals are suitable for the training of new doctors: if a hospital accredited for the training of emergency physicians closes the emergency room, for example, it withdraws from the accreditation of that specialization.
(Claudio Furlan – LaPresse)
The contest was held on September 22: candidates answered 140 questions in 210 minutes. One of the questions, however, was inaccurate: the number 87. The radiograph attached to the question did indeed show a fracture in the left femur, but with an unclear image. Due to this problem, many contestants filed an appeal with the administrative court.
The list with the names of the winners should have been published on October 5 at noon. The future trainees would then have five days to choose their destination, before the assignment scheduled for October 13. It did not happen.
The university ministry announced the publication of the provisional ranking on November 26, but the deadline for communicating the choice of destination was postponed. Choosing where to attend specialist courses is not a trivial matter: for many it means changing cities and then organizing to find accommodation.
Under the latest announced schedule, candidates should have announced their choice by December 1, with the assignment scheduled for December 3. Enrollment would take place on December 10 and the publication of the results of each candidate’s enrollment on December 16: however, a short period for all doctors to be able to organize for December 30, the day on which it was scheduled the start of the courses. of specialization. But everything fell apart again.
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In fact, on December 3, the University ministry published a note to communicate that the State Council will make a decision on resources on December 15. «The Council of State, with presidential decree no. 6948/2020, published on 02/12/2020, by accepting the precautionary appeal proposed by the MUR against the resources of some candidates in relation to question no. 87, suspending the contested sentence, however, it expressly added that “the new bankruptcy operations” will be carried out “after the collective precautionary decision”, which sets the boardroom for 12/15/2020, “the ministry wrote. Therefore , the phase of assigning candidates to schools, as well as the subsequent phases of the procedure, should be considered temporarily postponed for a few days ”.
On December 15, the judges of the State Council will have to decide whether the final classification to access the specialization scholarships will take into account all the requests for the contest, or the incorrect one should be discarded.
The consequences for doctors
These constant postponements cause great uncertainty and, above all, professional and economic damage to thousands of young doctors. In fact, many of the future trainees have worked as a medical guard, or in the USCA, the special assistance continuity units, that is, teams of doctors who assist COVID-19 patients at home. Others have been hired temporarily in nursing homes where doctors are in high demand. Future scholarship recipients had to resign on November 30, to respect the thirty-day notice, while waiting to start their courses on December 30, as planned. Meanwhile, the law does not allow them to have other positions, as they are incompatible with the specialist training contract.
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The minister’s statements
University Minister Gaetano Manfredi, interviewed by Corriere della Sera, announced a new date for the start of the courses: January 15th. “If times are too tight, we will postpone the start to January 15, to allow time for those who have to change cities to settle down,” he said. Let’s not forget that this year, having obtained the degree, those who graduated in July and September also participated in the selection, without having to wait for the state exam time ”.
The minister also said that there is “a huge dispute over these tests”, and commenting on the case of the incorrect application, which prompted appeals to the Council of State, said that “the upstream issue was not bad.” Unfortunately, there was an error dictated by TI procedure. When the commission found out, it was decided to cancel it for everyone and evaluate the test on the other 99 ”(actually the questions were 140).
The reactions of the medical unions
Filippo Anelli, president of FNOMCeO, the National Federation of Orders of Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists, called for “an end to the infinite and paradoxical story, which could be the plot of a Kafka novel or the script of a Samuel Beckett play” . , of the Contest of Specialization Schools. And allow as many young colleagues as possible to access postgraduate training courses. The association “Chi si cura di te?”, To which various medical specialists and general practitioners adhere, defined the delay as “unacceptable, with constant references that are a consequence of how the URM has been handled with disorganization, superficiality and poor Transparency this contest from the writing of the ad ».
Anaao Giovani, the Specialized Free Association, the Italian Young Doctors and the Medical Department said that they were “displeased by the umpteenth postponement of assignments and therefore of registrations. For months we have highlighted that the latest amendments to the announcement exposed the appeals side. We are tired of having to cyclically accept postponements and a reckless blame game, the only effect of which is to fuel the distrust of the ministerial executive.
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