Doctors and nurses strike on December 5th, the consequences for visits and exams

Public healthcare stops: 1.5 million healthcare services may not be provided.
These are the forecasts of the national strike of doctors and healthcare managers, which also includes the huge sector of nurses.
The strike of doctors and nurses is scheduled for December 5, lasting 24 hours.
Laboratory tests, surgical interventions, specialist visits and x-ray tests are at risk, while emergency healthcare services will be guaranteed.
Among the categories that will strike on December 18th there will be other departments of the healthcare sector, with anesthetists, resuscitators, radiologists and biologists.
In other words, on December 18th the activities of x-rays, MRIs and CT scans could be slowed down or completely postponed.
How does the doctors' strike day of 5 December 2023 work? Here are the performance details.
read also Can you go to work with Covid? National strike by doctors and nurses: services at risk.
Essential services and emergency practices are guaranteed, but many other healthcare services will be stopped.
According to initial calculations, 1.5 million healthcare services could be lost in just 24 hours of strike.
“We asked that the maneuver contain economic resources for ordinary work, given that they defined us as essential for the system – explains Pierino Di Silverio, ANAAO ASSOMED National Secretary – instead of rewarding ordinary work, they tend to recognize extraordinary work that we humanly could not do even if you want.
When, to eliminate the waiting lists, they say that they will pay 80 euros for extra work, despite the 60 hours a week that we already work to make up for the lack of staff, it almost means making fun of us".
Doctors, health managers and nurses detained for the 24 hours of 5 December 2023.
At risk are therefore laboratory services, surgical interventions (around 30,000 scheduled which could be postponed), specialist visits (a further 180,000 services) and radiographic tests ( 50,000).
Participation is expected to be 50%, involving sector unions such as Anaao Assomed and Cimo-Fesmed, and for the sector the Nursing Up union.
All doctors, health managers, technicians and administrators in service with a fixed-term or permanent contract can join the strike, as well as employees of private and religious structures that have agreements with the national health service; finally, specialist doctors hired with the so-called Calabria decree and university medical staff can also join.
read also Pneumonia in children, how is the situation in Italy? Which health services will be active and which will not: the guide to the 24-hour strike How do the 24-hour strike of doctors and nurses work? Starting from midnight between 4 and 5 December and for the following 24 hours, essential services will be guaranteed, while others postponed or cancelled.
In detail: emergency room: all emergency services will be guaranteed (risk of slowdowns and crowded waiting rooms); specialist visits: almost all of them will be missed and the healthcare company itself will contact the patients again to reschedule them; visits to the family doctor or pediatrician: they will be open regularly, the unions who called the strike do not represent them; surgical interventions: urgent ones are postponed or cancelled, the hospital will reschedule them (the same goes for December 18, when the anesthetists will go on strike); hospitalizations: scheduled ones are skipped, while urgent ones will be guaranteed; radiological tests: around 50 thousand are missed during the strike, but as with specialist visits it is best to show up; laboratory tests: most are missed; oncology services: will be guaranteed, just as therapeutic and rehabilitation services are ensured.