The 2022 primary care reform in Italy: Improving continuity and reducing regional disparities?

Several member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are reforming their primary care systems to improve continuity and co-ordination of care. In May 2022, the Italian health minister issued a new Decree on ‘defining models and standards for the development of primary care in the national health service’, which addresses some of the major challenges outlined by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The reform will target many aspects of the Italian national health system by transforming primary care into community care, while aiming to overcome geographical disparities and achieve greater effectiveness of services. The reform seeks to establish a new organisational model of the primary care network. There exists the potential to guarantee the same quality of care nationwide, thereby reducing geographical differences in the provision of services and improving healthcare services overall. Nevertheless, in a decentralised health system such as Italy's, reform implementation could actually proliferate rather than reduce regional disparities. This study explains the main points of the Decree, shows how the primary care models of the Italian regions may evolve in relation to the specified criteria, and examines the Decree's capacity to bridge regional discrepancies.