A bill led by Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin concerns a million professionals who will now be recognized as fully-fledged health workers. We are talking about osteopaths and chiropractors that will henceforth be able to rely on a more rigorous professional ethics and better fight against abuse.
Approval of the law
After a long and troubled process, the Lorenzin Bill became law and thus faced the reform of the professional health care orders, recognizing new professions such as osteopath and chiropractor that are added to those already present of the nurse, midwife and health technicians of radiology and rehabilitation.
This gives osteopaths and chiropractors the possibility to request the constitution of a register that allows identifying professionals and defending the requirements of competence, preparation and training, with a periodical professional and continuous accreditation.
“I am pleased with the approval of osteopath as a health figure – commented Dr. Castagnetti. As it already happens in Humanitas, osteopathy is a winning weapon if integrated into the rehabilitation path of the patient’s physiotherapy”.
Combating abusive practices
For those who practice their profession abusively, i.e. without the necessary qualifications, the Bill has tightened the penalties. Anyone acting outside the rules will be liable to a penalty ranging from six months to three years and a fine ranging from 10 thousand to 50 thousand euros. On the other hand, a three-year to ten-year period is provided for those who commit culpable homicide in the exercise of health professions without having the title, while pharmacists who provide drugs or doping substances without prescription for purposes other than those indicated in the marketing authorization risk receiving between 2 and 6 years.
Stop ill treatment
Increasingly severe penalties are also introduced for those who commit abuse against those who are hospitalized in health facilities or residential and semi-residential health care partners. The guests of these fragile and defenseless structures are often subjected to abuse and mistreatment, which will now be more severely punished under the new law.
Open doors to “gender medicine”
Since the Lorenzin Law came into force, the Board of Directors has given the go-ahead for legislative decrees that will introduce a specific reference to “gender medicine” and the pediatric age in clinical trials. The new approach opens new frontiers to an increasingly specific and personalized medicine that will allow therapies to be more tailored to women and children.
