The Health Minister Professor Girolamo Sirchia, world-renowned immunologist, has taken office as the new Minister of Health. One doctor thus takes over from another as head of the ministry, which in any case remains a true ministry and not a “general office of the Ministry of welfare,” as the Bassanini bill called for; the bill was modified ad hoc in the first session of the Berlusconi cabinet, which decided not to keep a subordinate position for a ministry that will have to deal with Italy’s serious health problems.

Both the outgoing minister, Veronesi, and Professor Sirchia enjoy the esteem of the entire medical world and a personal charisma recognized by all Italians. But the change at the helm of the ministry is significant. Minister Veronesi, being technical-minded and independent, was unable to move and act freely in an administration that had called on him hurriedly to replace a political minister who had caused a collapse in popularity of the previous government, which fell precisely because of the anomalous wave of the Bindi Reform, and the Berlinguer Reform.
The case of the new Minister Sirchia is different. This historic change in Italian politics has brought to power in Italy a new coalition that has taken over the helm of government with a broad majority that can’t be blackmailed by just anyone, in the wake of a promise of a radical change in direction for all of Italian politics, starting with Health,. It is no accident that the new Health Minister was called on to head the ministry from his post as director of social services for the City of Milan, where he quickly made himself known for his commitment to organizing a campaign of solidarity and assistance for the elderly. But the battle that Prof Girolamo Sirchia led for years before that was the battle to save the large public hospitals. This battle fit perfectly into the policy desired by the new Berlusconi government, in that he has always said that maintaining the large public hospitals and their social mission is a matter of changing the operating rules.
To remain in the market and compete on an equal footing with the private sector, the large hospital must remain under public control and operate under the rules of private law. It must have the possibilities, flexibility, autonomy and agility typical of any modern hospital in the industrialized world.
All over the world, government is a poor manager, inefficient and unsatisfactory. The government shouldn’t manage, but rather limit itself to setting the rules and checking to ensure that the services are efficient and of good quality, for the good of the citizen and of public finance. This is exactly the opposite of the philosophy that for years inspired Italian politics, which permeated the entire Bindi Reform and paralyzed everything Minister Veronesi tried to do. With Minister Sirchia at the helm, we will have a new ministry headed by a technician operating in a political administration, whose ideas fit precisely with the entire philosophy that is at the basis of the ideas advanced by everyone in the current majority, and this can only produce good results.
(traduzione Interpres-sas Giussano)