training

Year family medicine established: Late 1990s (Reventlow, 2018)

Type of Training: Residency/Internship (Stranges, 2018)

Length of Training: Family medicine post-graduate training (3 years), There is CME, where doctors need to attend a certain number of conferences and workshops (Stranges, 2018)

Number of institutions that offer family medicine: There are 11 universities that teach family medicine (Brekke et al., 2013)

Number of family medicine residents graduating each year: unknown

practice

Number of family doctors in country (2016): 54,063 family physicians (Eurostat, 2016)

Physician to population ratio (2006): 91.6 family physicians per 100,000 people (Masseria, 2009).

DALY: 11,245 per 100,000 individuals (Due to all Causes).

Life Expectancy:

• Females 2017: 85.6 years

• Males 2017: 81.0 years

Mortality rate 2017:

• 2014 Males: 65 per 1,000 male adults.

• 2014 Females: 37 per 1,000 female adults.

Infant Immunization-HepB3: % of 1-year-old children received: 95%

College of Family Physicians (Y or N):

• No

training

Italy established family medicine in the late 1990s, (Stranges, 2018), they now offer a residency/internship program for training (Reventlow, 2018). It requires 3 years of post-graduate training. There is also the Continuing Medical Education, (CME), where doctors need to attend a certain number of conferences and workshops (Stranges, 2018). Eleven universities currently offer training in family medicine (Brekke et al., 2013).

practice

Italy has 54,063 family physicians as of 2016, (Eurostat),  and 91.6 family physicians per 100,000 people recorded in 2006. This is a relatively high density of family physicians compared to many neighbouring countries.

The role of the family physician is to treat people over the age of 16; however, there are also family pediatricians who treat those under 16 (Chen, 2008). Services provided by GPs are quite limited, and child care is provided separately by pediatricians. GPs perform general examination of patients on a regular basis, measure blood pressure, take blood tests, prescribe diagnostic tests, and administer vaccinations (Chen, 2008).  

Under Italy’s community oriented primary care model it is required that patients register with a GP and obtain the GP’s referral to all or most specialist care (Stranges, 2018). There is no gatekeeping if you go to a private specialist, but if you go to a hospital specialist you need to see a primary care doctor first (Chen, 2008).