Overview
- The ministry's chief of staff Marco Mattei told regional health assessors on Wednesday that the planned decree-law forcing part of general practitioners into Case della Comunità has been withdrawn.
- Officials say the ministry still aims to integrate GPs into community clinics but will try to do so through an agreement with doctors, a parliamentary emendment or insertion in the atto di indirizzo for the national convenzione.
- Medical unions welcomed the stop and demanded binding safeguards, including the removal of the proposed 'ruolo unico', an end to mandatory hourly debts in community clinics, and rejection of pay-for-performance measures.
- The move reflected growing dissent inside the centre-right coalition and regional backlash, with Lombardy health assessor Guido Bertolaso leaving the meeting and announcing his resignation as vice‑coordinator of the Commissione Salute delle Regioni.
- The dispute matters for patients because Italy's long-standing model relies on autonomous family doctors under a national convention, and failure to secure GP buy-in could delay use of PNRR-funded Case della Comunità and change doctors' employment and working conditions.