Italy's Court of Audit, the Corte dei Conti, has published a report on the measures meant to shorten waiting lists. The Sezione centrale di controllo sulla gestione delle amministrazioni dello Stato approved it on 13 October under deliberation 54/2026/G, and the court made it public on 19 October. The report finds that waiting lists remain a structural problem, linked to organisational, managerial and planning weaknesses and not only to the pandemic. The court attributes the gap largely to staff shortages, particularly among specialists, and to uneven performance across regions. In its own words, the court describes the problem this way.
“Waiting lists continue to represent a structural problem of the healthcare system.”
For 2022 to 2028 the state has earmarked about 3.71 billion euros to curb waiting lists. Ministry of Health data for 2022 to 2025 show about 1.845 billion euros assigned, of which about 1.58 billion was used. Fanpage calculates that roughly 265 million euros went unspent, a figure based on partial data. The court warns that incomplete and inconsistent reporting from the Regions makes it hard to judge how the money was spent and what it achieved. The court's central finding on spending is this.
Data from the article text
“The increase in funding has not always produced results proportionate to the services delivered and the reduction in waiting times.”
The court's data show that for visits and diagnostic tests only one prescription in two becomes a booking, and one citizen in five turns down the first slot offered. The national waiting-list platform, the PNLA, flags problems with the regional use of priority class 'P' (programmata), gaps between the dates offered and those patients accept, and delays between a prescription and first contact with CUP booking centres. Even where money is adequate, expanding services is hard because there are too few professionals, especially specialists. The report also criticises the near absence of sanctions and disciplinary proceedings against general managers of the worst-performing health authorities.
Decree law 73 of 2024, which Fanpage calls the Schillaci decree, sets out a governance model built on stronger control systems, digitalisation and timely data. The court says this could bring structural improvement, but its effects can only be judged once the planned measures are fully in place. Two years after it took effect, many of its provisions have not yet been implemented. The court recommends speeding up that decree, completing the interoperability of the PNLA, tightening controls on money and results, improving planning of care needs and tackling staff shortages with structural measures. Health minister Orazio Schillaci, a former rector of the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, had played down new Istat figures showing 5.8 million Italians gave up care in 2024, not all of them because of waiting times. He argued that the figure applies the 9.9% found in an Istat sample, based on respondents' self-perception, to the whole population. He later called waiting times a 'problema reale'.
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Italy's Court of Audit says waiting lists remain a structural problem, and more funding has not always shortened waits. Between 2022 and 2025 about 1.58 billion of the 1.845 billion euros assigned by the state was used.
AI text based on reports by Il Fatto Quotidiano, Fanpage, Il Sole 24 ORE and other publishers. Published .