At the end of 2022, Italy’s government approved a one-year extension of electronic prescription for medicines, but it is just temporary and there’s a high risk it might disappear in 2024.

The e-prescription should be made a permanent measure, alongside other urgent improvements in the Italian healthcare system that’s in need of modernization.

In recent weeks, doctors and patients held their breath as political parties debated the fate of digital prescription slips. Until the very end, it looked like the digital ricetta medica was going to be shelved, reverting in January to the pre-Covid paper slips and the nuisance of going to the doctor to fetch it.

The e-prescription has been one of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic. It proved a godsend for both general practitioners (medici di base) and patients during the Covid emergency, when social distancing was the norm and crowding at the doctor’s office was the best way to pass on bacteria and viruses.

Many Italians turned to the digital ricetta during lockdown, even those who’d normally queue up regularly at the doctor’s just to grab their prescription and go to the pharmacy.

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The ricetta elettronica also spares a lot of paper waste and precious time, allowing people to go shopping or to the gym instead of waiting hours in line. It has helped to boost the digitalization of Italian health care.

Before Covid, even patients with chronic diseases who needed a monthly prescription had to knock at their doctors’ door.

If next year there is no radical reform that makes digital ricetta the rule and a structural measure, it would be a major step back. 

The truth is that not all doctors, nor patients (particularly the elderly), are digital savvy. Many doctors I know still prefer to write by hand the paper prescriptions with their personal signature.

My medico di base really needs to retire. He is 70 and even though patients call him by phone to order prescriptions he is able to send just some ones via email while others for specific medicines they still have to pick up at his office, getting in line as if they had to be visited. It is a major nuisance.

When I was living in Holland back in 2005 doctors were accustomed to sending digital prescriptions straight to the pharmacy nearest to the patient’s home, who just had to stop by after work. 

Patients with chronic diseases would regularly drop by the pharmacy next door and pick up the monthly prescribed dose. I wish it worked the same way in Italy.

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There are many other aspects of healthcare that should be modernised permanently in Italy. 

And this can be done by boosting online centralized services, which citizens could have access to through their fascicolo elettronico sanitario (electronic medical file), which is like their ‘health passport’ where all health information should be stored, from prescribed medicines to allergies, hospitalizations and results of exams. 

The fascicolo was launched with Covid to download test results and green passes, but it has enormous potential. It is linked to a personal tessera sanitaria (the health card), otherwise known also as the codice fiscale (tax identification number).

The electronic fascicolo should allow the booking of medical appointments and exams at public and private hospitals, and the ordering of medicines at your pharmacy that do not need a prescription. An SMS could be sent to alert patients when medicines and exam results are ready.

Much-needed healthcare improvements also include more efficient online bookings of doctors’ appointments, check-ups and exams. Many hospitals and clinics have online platforms for private booking, but these seldom work well due to internet glitches so patients have to revert to call centers which are always busy, leave their number and hope to be called back. Online platforms are also useful if one has to cancel an appointment.

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There should be online tickets for blood tests at medical labs and hospitals, downloadable on smartphones with a precise time. It’s crazy that people need to queue up early in the morning, without breakfast, just to take the bigliettino (ticket with their number) and wait to be called by the nurse for the blood test.

In Italy everyone knows that national healthcare waiting lists for surgeries, exams and day procedures can be months-long, but private facilities, where patients are willing and can afford to pay, cannot be as slow as the public sector. I remember once having to book an emergency private allergy test by phone and finding out I had to wait four months, despite it being at one of the biggest hospitals in Rome. 

Private appointments at public hospitals, which can cost up to €300, need to implement faster appointment procedures and boost the number of available doctors.

Italian public healthcare is one of the most democratic in the world, willing to treat anyone in need for free. But when it comes to modernisation, there are many challenges yet to overcome.