Regions. A Comparison Starting from Their Differences and Arriving at Their Strengths

A VALID RESPONSE TO A PANDEMIC LIKE THE CORONAVIRUS NEEDS MORE COORDINATION FOR ENSURING GREATER ABILITY TO REACT, WHILE MAINTAINING FLEXIBILITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

More coordination between Italian regions means greater sharing of data and health practices to react quickly and efficiently to the next potential virus crisis. This coordination function can be entrusted to the central state, in order not only to encourage dialogue between regions but also and in the first place to decide which standards each territorial body must comply with in the event of an emergency.
 
"The system that needs to be built must be fast and efficient. Among the main objectives to be achieved is the one of overcoming tensions between regions and the central government, at least those that can be resolved more quickly. This is not a proposal that wants to go back to the past of a centralized National Health Service. In fact, bureaucracy and homologation are to be avoided, because regional differences are useful for comparing and improving the entire national system", says Amelia Compagni, Department of Social and Political Sciences, CERGAS, Bocconi University. She has recently written “Corona-regionalism? Differences in regional responses to COVID-19 in Italy”, a paper that analyzes how the five regions of Lombardy, Venetia, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and Apulia responded to the pandemic emergency from February to May 2020.
 
Compagni co-wrote the paper together with Oriana Ciani (CERGAS, SDA Bocconi), Simone Ghislandi (CERGAS, Bocconi University) and Iris Bosa (University of Edinburgh), Adriana Castelli (University of York), Michele Castelli (Newcastle University), Matteo M. Galizzi (London School of Economics and Political Science), Matteo Garofano (Local Health Authority of Parma), Margherita Giannoni (University of Perugia), Giorgia Marini (Sapienza University of Rome) and Milena Vainieri (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies).
 
The study, already published in the journal Health Policy, is in fact the result of the work carried out by a larger pool of Italian researchers who, in turn, are part of the European Health Policy Group.
 
"A valid response to a pandemic like the coronavirus cannot be improvised," says Compagni. “Each region gave a different response in the first phase of the pandemic, because each region had its own health organization and structure that had been set up over time. Levels of managerial skills also differed. The presence of coordination can ensure greater ability to react, while maintaining flexibility at the local level”.

by Camillo Papini