by InTrieste
Friuli Venezia Giulia has officially opened a new Community Health Center in Tolmezzo, marking a significant step in the region’s effort to strengthen healthcare services in rural and mountain communities.
The facility, inaugurated on Thursday by Regional Health Councilor Riccardo Riccardi, will serve more than 35,000 residents across 28 municipalities in the Carnia district. Located on Via Carnia Libera 1944, near Tolmezzo’s hospital and bus station, the center is designed to bring primary care, specialist services and social assistance together under one roof.
“The Community Health Center in Tolmezzo is fully operational,” Riccardi said during the ceremony. “Beyond the political debate, anyone who enters this facility today finds an answer.”
The approximately 800-square-meter center occupies two floors of an ASUFC-owned building and represents an investment of €1.5 million. It houses a 24-hour continuity of care service, nursing and specialist clinics, a rehabilitation gym, blood testing facilities and the Punto Unico di Accesso, a multidisciplinary access point that coordinates clinical and social services.
Addressing shortages in family medicine
The opening comes as Italy continues implementing its nationwide model of Case della Comunità — neighborhood health hubs intended to shift more healthcare away from hospitals and into local communities.
Riccardi emphasized that family doctors remain central to the project, expressing hope that general practitioners will increasingly work within the new facility.
Currently, the Carnia area is served by 20 family physicians and four pediatricians, while the center itself employs five doctors, including specialists in neurology and gynecology, alongside 12 nurses, five healthcare assistants, nine physiotherapists and administrative staff. Two freelance physicians also help provide care for more than 5,000 residents who are temporarily without a family doctor.
Responding to criticism over planning and physician participation, Riccardi pointed to recent national reforms governing the role of general practitioners. He noted that Friuli Venezia Giulia had already signed a regional agreement in 2025, while Italy’s revised national contract, introduced in June and finalized in July, now requires family doctors to spend up to six hours per week in Community Health Centers.
Regional officials said discussions with medical representatives will continue in early September to resolve remaining concerns about implementation.
A hub for mountain communities
The Tolmezzo center will also function as the main hub for smaller health points in Ampezzo, Ovaro and Paluzza, extending services across one of the region’s most geographically challenging territories.
During the inauguration, attended by ASUFC Director General Denis Caporale, Carnia Health District Director Gianni Borghi, Tolmezzo Mayor Roberto Vicentini, and Archpriest Angelo Zanello, Riccardi said healthcare in mountain areas depends not only on medical services but also on transportation and community partnerships.
He called for closer collaboration between municipalities and third-sector organizations to ensure that elderly and isolated residents can access care more easily, adding that ASUFC is working to strengthen transport support throughout the district.
