Following yesterday’s lengthy hearing of the ISS (Istituto per la Sicurezza Sociale) leadership before the Commission, RETE returns to the future of San Marino’s healthcare system with a statement addressing waiting lists, the Institute’s autonomy and the growing role of private care, while renewing its call for a new hospital. The full statement follows.
Our public healthcare system is falling apart. Waiting lists that are far too long, organizational problems, and services struggling to meet citizens’ needs: we risk watching the model on which our healthcare system has been built for decades gradually disappear.
Yet these problems have been known for some time. The 2024 Organizational Act, presented at the time as a temporary measure by some parties within the current majority, has still not been superseded. In February, the majority itself instructed the Government to draw up the new Health Plan and, consequently, to update both the Organizational Act and the Requirements Assessment. We are still waiting.
That’s not all: more than a year after taking office, our assessment of the new Executive Committee‘s performance is negative. But has this Committee actually been given the necessary managerial autonomy to do its job, or does it continue to suffer, even indirectly, from political conditioning or interference? RETE has for years denounced the ongoing political interference in the management of the Institute: too often, both within and around the ISS, defending one’s own turf seems more important than safeguarding citizens’ health.
And the consequences are plain to see. While the public service struggles, private healthcare gains ground. We risk ending up with a system turned upside down: if service failures and cuts end up making private care an unavoidable choice, it is citizens who foot the bill.
The question, then, remains open: what kind of healthcare do we want for the years ahead? RETE wants a strong, autonomous ISS, capable of managing itself and guaranteeing quality services. It wants a new hospital: the current facility has too many problems, including concerning its structural stability and earthquake resistance. We must look to the future with a facility capable of continuing to guarantee free services to San Marino citizens while also becoming an accredited center of excellence, creating the opportunity to treat foreign patients on a paying basis as well.
What is needed, however, is a serious political class, free from the constraints and the enormous interests surrounding the hospital which, all too often, do not align with those of patients. Courage is needed, before it’s too late and too many pieces have already been lost.
Statement by RETE
