Health care
Five provincial health authorities (Catanzaro, Cosenza, Crotone, Reggio Calabria, Vibo Valentia), Dulbecco university hospital in Catanzaro, Cosenza hospital trust, GOM in Reggio. Under a recovery plan since 2009 and a commissioner since 2010 (the regional president since 2021); non-compliant in the 2023 LEA monitoring but improving sharply. Highest outbound patient mobility in Italy.
Sections: Access · Coverage · Facilities · Pharmacies · Emergencies
Organisation
The Calabrian health service is organised in five provincial health authorities (ASP Catanzaro, Cosenza, Crotone, Reggio Calabria, Vibo Valentia) and three hospital trusts: the Renato Dulbecco university hospital in Catanzaro (created in 2023 from the merger of Pugliese-Ciaccio and Mater Domini), the Cosenza hospital trust (Annunziata) and the Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Bianchi-Melacrino-Morelli in Reggio Calabria. The hospitals of Crotone, Vibo, Lamezia, Locri, Polistena, Castrovillari and Corigliano-Rossano report to the ASPs. Since 2022 the Region has recruited Cuban doctors to staff understaffed wards in peripheral hospitals.
Commissioner and quality
Calabria has been under a recovery plan since 2009 and run by a commissioner since 2010, the longest commissioner arrangement in Italy; since November 2021 the commissioner ad acta is the regional president. The 2019 "Calabria decree" introduced extraordinary powers and the removal of health authority executives. In the monitoring of essential care levels (LEA) for 2023, under the Ministry of Health's Nuovo Sistema di Garanzia, the region remains non-compliant in one area but records the largest improvement among the regions compared with 2022. Calabria has Italy's highest share of hospital admissions outside the region (outbound mobility), to Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Sicily and Campania, with a negative balance of hundreds of millions a year for the regional budget.
Access and inland areas
Bookings go through the ASP booking centres and the regional electronic health record; the air ambulance has bases in Cosenza, Lamezia Terme and Locri. In the inland areas of the Sila, Pollino and Aspromonte the emergency department can be over an hour away and peripheral maternity units have been closed; the shortage of GPs and paediatricians is documented by the ASPs. Anyone moving in should find out which facilities are actually operating in their area.
Sources
Updated: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Reviewed: 10/23/2026 · by piero.avolio · rev. 1 · Period: → 2027-04-30
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