July like January, or almost. At least if you look at the chairs occupied in the clinics of family doctors in Tuscany. An increase in visits that more closely resembles those weeks of the year when the flu hits hard and instead puts us in front of a new reality: in summer the clinics no longer empty but rather patients need care and assistance.
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Full clinics
A paradigm shift that is leading general practitioners (and not only) to review the organizational setup to cope with what many experts call the “climate pandemic.” «It has been 40 degrees for a month – explains Niccolò Biancalani, secretary of Fimmg Tuscany – and these temperatures are becoming almost normal. Due to the heat, patient requests have increased but the system is holding up. It is under stress but it holds. In the clinics, there is a sort of “climate peak” with a number of visits comparable to that of the flu peak.» According to Biancalani, to cope with this increase in requests, it is necessary to structure a real “summer plan” and to open the way to a sort of «climate medicine».
Who suffers the most
«Many patients become dehydrated at home – he explains – with the heat, all therapies for heart failure patients and heart disease patients need to be reviewed. Bedridden patients suffer the most but in general the category of over 70s. Psychiatric patients too – he adds – are affected by high temperatures because they are forced to change their habits and perhaps give up, for example, a walk by the sea which would instead be necessary to find stability.»
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The situation in emergency rooms
But the front of healthcare assistance does not end in the clinics. And to understand if the system really holds, you have to look at the numbers of emergency room visits. Let’s start from southern Tuscany. «On average, the emergency room at Grosseto hospital has 300 visits per day in summer – explains Marco Torre, new director of the Health, Welfare and Social Cohesion Directorate of the Tuscany Region from September 1st – while at San Donato hospital in Arezzo we are around 200. The coast is affected by the greater tourist presence but in general there is an increase in visits due to heat-related ailments. The system is holding up anyway, we have adopted a whole series of measures that are working. In addition, the “Pir”, Rapid Intervention Points in community houses, are starting. Those who need non-urgent assistance can contact the center at number 116117 and the operator filters the request by directing the patient to a Pir and only if necessary to the emergency room.»
The role of community houses
Moving up along the coast and entering the wide perimeter of the North West ASL, the data show yes an increase in emergency room visits but all in all contained. In the period May-June-July 2026, the total emergency room visits at the coastal hospitals – Massa, Versilia, Livorno, Cecina, Piombino and Portoferraio – was 81,500 while in the same period of 2025 visits were 80,000: about +1.9%. «At Versilia – explains Dr. Giuseppe Pepe, director of the emergency room at Lido di Camaiore hospital and regional president of Simeu – in summer we always have an increase in visits also due to the massive tourist presence. In the June-July 2026 period there were 14,574 while in March-April 12,000. In July 2026 we had 7,670 visits while last year there were 7,590. So there was an increase but less marked than in the past. I believe this is thanks to alternative assistance such as community houses and Pir. Now it is important to inform citizens that they have other facilities available that provide assistance. Those with minor problems can turn there and only if necessary will be directed to the hospital»l
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