Health workforce governance in Italy

More precise health workforce governance has become a prominent issue in healthcare systems. This issue is particularly important in Italy, given its strongly doctor-centered healthcare system and the dramatic aging of its physicians’ labor force. Using different sources of information (statistical data, official planning documents and interviews with key informants), the article attempts to answer two questions. Why has the Italian healthcare systems found itself in the situation of a potential drastic reduction in the amount of doctors in the medium term without a rebalancing through a different mix of skills and professionals? How good is the capacity of the Italian healthcare system to plan healthcare workforce needs? The widespread presence of ‘older’ physicians is the result of the strong entry of doctors into the Italian healthcare system in the 1970s and 1980s. Institutional fragmentation, difficulties in drafting broad healthcare reforms, political instability and austerity measures explain why Italian health workforce forecasting and planning are still unsatisfactory, although recent developments indicate that changes are under way. In order to tackle these problems it is necessary to foster closer cooperation among a wide range of stakeholders, to move from uni-professional to multi-professional health workforce planning, and to partially re-centralise decision making.