Bookings rise across specialist visits and tests

Agenas, the national agency for regional health services, published its waiting list bulletin on 22 October 2026, based on National Waiting Lists Platform data updated to 30 September. For the first nine months of 2026, total bookings rose from 19.7 million in the same period of 2025 to 21.8 million, an increase of more than 10%. First specialist visits went from 11.3 million to 12.3 million (+8.3%), while diagnostic tests went from 8.4 million to 9.5 million (+13.3%). The bulletin covers 14 types of first specialist visit and 22 diagnostic tests, so it does not capture the whole of National Health Service activity.

First visits 202576.9%

First visits 202678.6%

Diagnostic tests 202583.3%

Diagnostic tests 202685%

First visits 2025

76.9 %

First visits 2026

78.6 %

Diagnostic tests 2025

83.3 %

Diagnostic tests 2026

85 %

Data from the article text

Bookings outside the deadline

Bookings made beyond the guaranteed maximum waiting times edged down. First visits fell from 2.14 million to 2.11 million, and their share of the total dropped from 18.9% to 17.2%. Diagnostic tests slipped from 1.089 million to 1.084 million, with their share falling from 12.9% to 11.4%. Agenas technicians said the two categories together come to about 3.2 million services outside the limit. Adding services delivered in the days just after the deadline brings the figure to about 4 million.

“This does not mean they were not provided to citizens; they were, but late compared with the planned times.”

Tanese, the agency's director general, said the late services were still delivered to patients, only after the planned time.

Compliance and regional gaps

The share of services delivered within guaranteed times improved in both areas. First visits rose from 76.9% to 78.6%, which means 9.6 million services in time against 8.7 million before, about 935,000 more. Diagnostic tests rose from 83.3% to 85%, from 7 million to 8.1 million, or about 1.1 million additional tests. Urgent first visits, due within three days, rose from 78.8% to 81.7%, and brief ones, due within ten days, from 78.2% to 80.6%. Improvement was recorded in 19 of 21 regions.

Regional gaps remain wide. For first visits, four regions are below 70%: Puglia at 55.3%, Umbria at 62.7%, Sardegna at 64.3% (down from 68%) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia at 67.8%. Basilicata (99%), Marche (94.7%), Lazio (92.3%) and Veneto (90.5%) lead. For diagnostic tests, Valle d'Aosta (69.7%), Umbria (64.7%) and Puglia (63.4%) fall below 70%. Agenas noted that in some regions the high rates may reflect too many 120-day prescriptions, which points to prescribing appropriateness.

Puglia55.3%

Umbria62.7%

Sardegna64.3%

Friuli-Venezia Giulia67.8%

Puglia

55.3 %

Umbria

62.7 %

Sardegna

64.3 %

Friuli-Venezia Giulia

67.8 %

Data from the article text

Prescriptions and priority classes

Nearly 35% of first-visit prescriptions carry class P, which means they can be scheduled within 120 days. In seven regions the share exceeds 51%, and in Campania and Basilicata it tops 75%. Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that 16.6% of urgent gastroenterology first visits waited at least 31 days in 2026, a figure close to the 16.9% recorded in 2025.

What comes next

From January 2027, in line with the new national waiting list plan, the monitoring will expand from 55 to 114 services, Tanese said. Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that the monitoring had been moved from the ministry to Agenas in early August.

“We are carrying on a permanent dialogue with each Region on the critical issues and the actions to take.”