The paper provides an overview of primary healthcare in Italy on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic and analyses the changes since 2010, comparing the features in different areas of the country. It jointly examines supply and demand aspects relating to primary healthcare through the construction of composite indicators capable of representing their multidimensional nature.
The results show a high territorial heterogeneity in the supply models against more homogeneous demand characteristics. Between 2010 and 2019, there was an improvement in both the health conditions of citizens and the primary healthcare supply in all macro areas, but not enough to bridge the initial gaps. Indeed, the South still stood out, compared with the rest of the country, because of its greater critical issues on both the demand and supply sides.
