The Italian health minister has promised to change draconian employment regulations affecting medical employees after three doctors received fines totalling €37,000 (£32,000) for working too much during the coronavirus pandemic.
Orazio Schillaci’s comments came after Vito Procacci, the chief of the emergency unit at the general hospital in Bari, Puglia, said he had been fined €27,000 by the local labour inspectorate for breaching overtime rules and not taking obligatory breaks.
“Yesterday we were heroes; today we are transgressors,” Procacci wrote on Facebook, adding that the fines were “an insult to Italian healthcare workers but also to citizens who experienced suffering and grief because of the pandemic”.
The labour minister, Marina Calderone, said an inspection had been carried out at the Bari hospital after a trade union made complaints over excessive working hours of medical staff during 2021.
A report by Fnomceo in early September found that of the health workers going abroad, the majority had moved to countries in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia being the most “in demand” destination, followed by the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain.
Authorities in Venice launched an appeal for GPs in July, offering incentives such as subsidised rates on surgery premises, help with providing accommodation and free parking on the edges of the lagoon city.
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