Italian public healthcare system beats Medicare any day of the week

Imagine being able to see a doctor as soon as you needed to or, even better, seeing a specialist for a non-urgent consultation straight away. In Australia, waiting a week or more to see a GP is common, while specialist appointments can take months. And with bulk billing practitioners becoming harder and harder to find, options for those who can’t afford to pay are becoming fewer.

But what if it wasn’t like this? Imagine knowing that whatever happened, there was a system in place to make sure you received the care you needed.

When I had to navigate the public health system in Italy, I got a glimpse of what accessible, affordable and high-quality healthcare looks like, and it was eye-opening.

I wasn’t sick, but I had found a strange spot on my skin – and because I am fair-skinned and freckled – I’m vigilant about skin cancer. With another two months before I headed home, I didn’t want to wait to have it seen.

I could share all the details of my interaction with the doctor, who told me I had nothing to worry about, but recommended I see a dermatologist so that I could put my worries to rest. I could also tell you about the kindness of the pharmacist who drew me a map to the doctor’s clinic, or about the two mortuary attendants who gave me a lift to the correct part of the hospital when I was lost, or the friendly doctors and nurses keen to chat about Australia while they typed up my papers.

But the real point of the story is that the day I needed to see a doctor, I was able to access a clinic, and after only an hour’s wait, see a GP. The next day, when I went to the local hospital to consult a dermatologist, I was seen straight away. Again, not because it was an emergency, but because specialists in Italy work in public hospitals and see walk-in patients.

Over two days, I spent just two hours in the public system. In that time, I saw a GP, a nurse, a triage doctor, and a specialist. The hospital was clean; the staff were competent, kind and calm. They didn’t look like they were working under pressure. It wasn’t crowded and, at the end, there were no bills to pay.

As well as the treatment, I received something else that is unavailable to many people in Australia: the unquantifiable but transformative knowledge that, even as a foreigner, if I needed medical care, help would be there.

While this might seem hard to believe, the figures speak for themselves.