There are currently three million people in Italy with serious disabilities who require customised medical aids.

That is a huge number of people with specific and urgent needs, for whom the current procedure for procurement of those aids is entirely inadequate and “hinders sufficient and prompt customisation and access to the best technology possible”.

With these words, Alessandro Berti, President of the Medical Aids Association of Confindustria Medical Devices, and also the Regulatory and Public Affairs Officer of Moretti S.p.A, criticised, in a letter to the newly elected LEA (Essential Assistance Levels) Commission, the ways in which the current medical aids purchasing model and classification system penalise them.

At present, in fact, medical aids for people with serious and complex disabilities have been moved from the current national healthcare products list (Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 12 January 2017) onto the list of standard aids for which supply through a competitive bidding procedure is envisaged.

This is an entirely inadequate method and prevents the aids that genuinely meet the patient’s needs from being allocated.

These are complex and extremely expensive aids with a high technological content.

They are devices that form part of a specific care and rehabilitation plan and may range from crutches or manual wheelchairs, in the simplest cases, to electric wheelchairs with communication systems or exoskeletons in the more complex ones.

They therefore require a personalised prescription procedure and an appropriate process of assessment that guarantees a prompt and precise response to the individual needs of anyone living with a serious and complex disability.

Thanks to the actions of Alessandro Berti, the Medical Aids Association of Confindustria Medical Devices has therefore highlighted the urgent need for this adjustment, in order not only to respond to the actual needs of people with disabilities, but also to the most innovative market opportunities.

“We hope that the new LEA Commission elected in the past few days will listen to our proposals. Regulating supply correctly and revising the national healthcare products list – concluded Mr. Berti – would allow all people with disabilities to obtain the aids they need and would prevent them being left in precarious situations and thus free to enjoy a life that is as normal as possible, to move around and to have relationships. Failure to include this type of medical devices on the list of customised aids results in serious lags and differentiated supply between the various regions, thus preventing millions of people with disabilities from gaining access to the devices they need”.