Italian healthcare waiting lists are starting to reduce, but for millions of patients, being able to obtain a specialist visit or diagnostic test within the time indicated by the doctor remains anything but a given.
The photograph comes from the first quarterly bulletin produced by the National Agency for Regional Health Services, built using data from the new National Waiting List Platform. In the first half of 2026, a total of 14.9 million bookings were recorded, compared to 13.3 million in the same period of 2025. These are 8.4 million first specialist visits and approximately 6.6 million diagnostic tests.
The capacity of the healthcare system therefore increased and, above all, a greater proportion of services were carried out within the established limits. The problem is that the percentage improvement has not yet eliminated the mountain of appointments placed beyond the deadline or dangerously close to the maximum limit.
Waiting lists, what the new numbers really say
In the first half of 2026, 78.5 percent of first visits were secured on time, compared to 76.4 percent the previous year. For diagnostic tests the percentage rose from 82.8 to 84.6 percent.
Translated into absolute numbers, approximately 6.6 million first visits were carried out regularly, 757 thousand more than in the first half of 2025. Diagnostic tests performed within the thresholds were approximately 5.5 million, with an increase of 867 thousand services. The overall improvement therefore exceeds 1.6 million visits and tests guaranteed on time.
However, there remains an important clarification on the data, relaunched in these hours, of the almost three million Italians forced to wait longer than necessary. The Agenas Bulletin records 1,445,080 first visits and 759,692 diagnostic tests placed with a greater delay beyond the guarantee times: in total, just over 2.2 million bookings clearly outside the threshold.
Added to these are 606,256 services carried out with times very close to the limit: 356,411 visits and 249,845 tests. Adding the two groups together we arrive at approximately 2.81 million problematic bookings, even if not all of them are formally beyond the deadline. The data also describes the number of services and not necessarily that of single citizens, because the same person may have booked multiple visits or tests.
The good news, therefore, is that the percentage share of late services is decreasing. The less good one is that, in absolute value, the number remains almost unchanged: the first visits with significant delays were around 1.47 million in the first half of 2025 and are still 1.44 million in 2026. The exams outside the threshold have even risen, albeit slightly, from 754 thousand to almost 760 thousand.
The system produces more and is able to respond to a wider demand, but it has not yet eliminated the most difficult core of the waiting lists.
How long should you wait for a visit or test
Times change based on the priority class indicated by the doctor on the prescription. It is an apparently small letter, but it is decisive for understanding within which deadline the Health Service should guarantee the service.
The class Uurgent, requires execution within three days. The class Bshort, within ten days. For the first visits to the classroom Ddeferrable, the limit is 30 days, while for diagnostic tests it rises to 60. The class Pscheduled, generally provides for a maximum of 120 days.
The most evident progress concerns precisely the highest priorities. Urgent visits carried out within three days went from 77.7 to 81 percent, while short visits guaranteed within ten days rose from 77.3 to 80.2 percent. Deferrable visits carried out within 30 days increased from 70 to 73.3 percent. However, the result of scheduled services remains stable, at 84.3 percent.
Even for diagnostic tests, all classes improve: urgent ones guaranteed within three days rise from 73.2 to 76.4 percent, short ones from 75.9 to 77.6 percent and those that can be deferred from 82.8 to 85.1 percent. The scheduled performances went from 85.4 to 86.8 percent.
The national averages, however, hide very different situations. According to the calculation reported by Ansa, in 7.9 percent of cases an urgent visit is still scheduled after the expected deadline, while for 2.4 percent the first availability arrives even after more than a month. For short visits, almost one in five exceeds ten days and, in 1.9 percent of cases, the appointment is offered more than six months later.
Colonoscopies and gastroscopy remain among the most critical tests
The improvement does not affect all performance in the same way. The first oncological visits present the best result: 95.2 percent are guaranteed within the scheduled time, compared to 94.2 percent in 2025.
The performance of physiatric visits also increased, from 78.5 to 82.7 percent, of pneumology visits, from 77.7 to 80.9 percent, and of gastroenterology visits, from 70.8 to 74.7 percent. Dermatological visits recorded the most significant progress, rising from 65.5 to 70.2 percent, but still remained one of the specialists with the greatest difficulties.
Among diagnostic tests, colonoscopy makes the most marked recovery, going from 60.8 to 69.8 percent of appointments meeting deadlines. However, it means that, across the priority classes, approximately three out of ten colonoscopies continue to not be performed within the indicated times.
Gastroscopy also improved, from 66.4 to 71.9 percent, along with breast ultrasound, abdominal MRI and mammography. The latter reaches 89 percent compliance with the thresholds. The only monitored performance showing a slight worsening is the brainstem MRI, which drops from 83.9 to 81.9 percent.
The situation becomes even more critical when some procedures are prescribed as urgent. Almost 65 percent of urgent colonoscopies were carried out after three days, while more than half of urgent gastroscopies exceeded the deadline. Similar problems are reported for electromyography and magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen.
The Region of residence continues to make the difference
Where you live remains one of the most important elements in determining how long you will have to wait.
For the first specialist visits, Basilicata reaches 98.9 percent of services carried out within the time frame. Followed by the Marche with 94.5 percent, Lazio with 91.6 and Veneto with 91.5 percent.
At the bottom of the ranking are the autonomous Province of Trento, where only 54.7 percent of first visits respect the deadlines, Puglia with 55.7, Umbria with 63.7, Sardinia with 64.1 and Friuli-Venezia Giulia with 67.9 percent.
However, the comparison with 2025 also shows significant recoveries. Liguria goes from 63.2 to 82.9 percent, with a jump of almost twenty points, while Lombardy rises from 72.3 to 81.8 percent. Among others, the autonomous province of Trento, Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo and Sardinia are worsening.
For diagnostic tests the best picture is that of Veneto, which reaches 97.1 percent, followed by Campania with 96, Basilicata with 94.6 and Marche with 92.4 percent. The lowest percentages are recorded in Umbria, Puglia, Abruzzo and Valle d’Aosta.
The territorial gap therefore remains one of the main limits of the system: the same prescription, with the same clinical priority, can translate into profoundly different expectations depending on the Region and the competent healthcare company.
What those who book a specialist visit should check
For citizens, the first information to verify is the priority class shown on the prescription. Without that acronym it is impossible to understand whether the date proposed by the Cup really respects the maximum time foreseen.
It is also important to distinguish a first visit, which is the subject of Agenas monitoring, from a control or follow-up visit. The Bulletin examines 14 types of first specialist visits and 22 categories of diagnostic tests: it therefore does not represent every single service provided by the Health Service.
When the first available appointment exceeds the deadline, it is useful to ask the CUP to verify all the accredited public and private facilities included in the foreseen territorial area, and not just the hospital usually used. It is also advisable to keep the prescription and take note of the date on which the request was made, the first appointment proposed and any unavailability communicated.
The ways in which to report failure to comply with deadlines and activate protection procedures may change from one Region to another. For this it is necessary to consult the regional portal dedicated to waiting lists or contact the URP of the health company. The Ministry of Health collects links to the regional monitoring systems on its website.
A real improvement, but still insufficient
The first Agenas Bulletin shows for the first time in a systematic way that something is moving. Performance is increasing, percentages of meeting deadlines are improving and some Regions that started from critical levels are catching up. Weekend openings also grew: expected bookings on Saturday or Sunday went from 330 thousand to 357 thousand.
Yet, behind the positive averages, there remain over two million visits and tests with significant delays, plus hundreds of thousands more placed on the brink of deadline. Above all, there continue to be services for which the priority indicated on the prescription seems to have a very different weight from one part of the country to another.
Italian healthcare has begun to produce more. The next step, which is much more difficult, will be to ensure that the statistical improvement really coincides with the experience of those who, prescription in hand, try to obtain a visit without being forced to wait months or go to the private sector.
