After many years of study, weekend, weekend and night shifts, enormous responsibilities, how much does a doctor really earn in Italy? With a video released on social media, Matteo Bassetti acts as spokesperson for the category and talks about the salary disparities that Italy has with other countries. And he proposes a review of compensation “to save public health”. Bassetti starts from a precise figure to describe the salary reality of Italian public doctors: “The magic number: three thousand euros net per month. This is the salary of an Italian doctor after a six-year training course in medicine, four or five years of specialization and years of training”, he explains.
The same salary for each specialization
A figure which, underlines the Genoese infectious disease specialist, remains substantially unchanged regardless of the workload or specialisation: “An Italian doctor who works in the public sector earns this amount for the day, for the nights, for Saturdays and Sundays. And it is the same amount whether you are an infectious disease specialist like me, whether you work in the emergency room, whether you are a surgeon, a cardiac surgeon or a neurosurgeon. We are talking about specialties of very high responsibility”. The central crux of the issue raised by the doctor concerns salary flattening.
Added to this are the “extra” costs linked to the profession. Bassetti recalls how there are very high-risk specialties for which professionals must cover private insurance “which can even reach twenty thousand euros a year”, eroding the actual earnings even further.
👨⚕️ How much does a #doctor really earn in Italy? Years of university. Specialization. Nights, holidays, enormous responsibilities. And then? In the NHS, the salary structure is still strongly linked to a common contractual basis for medical management, with differences arising above all from seniority, assignments, shifts and additional activities. The point is not to say that an internist, a cardiac surgeon and a neurosurgeon do the same job. They don’t. The point is to ask ourselves whether the remuneration system really recognizes, even economically, differences in: 🧠 complexity ❤️ responsibility ⏱️ training 🚨 workload 📚 years of sacrifices And when we look at the salaries of medical specialists in other European countries, the comparison becomes even more interesting. The question is not just “how much does a doctor earn?” The question is: 👉 how much is the responsibility of a doctor worth economically?
— Matteo Bassetti (@ProfMBassetti) September 30, 2026
Comparison with other countries
In his speech, Bassetti then makes a comparison with the salaries of colleagues abroad. A reality emerges that is far from European and international standards. An economic gap that fuels an inevitable flight of white coats abroad.
“France, 4,500 euros net per month. Germany, six thousand euros net per month. In Switzerland and the United States we are at over 15 thousand euros net per month. In the Italian healthcare system the salary structure of medical management is linked to a common contractual basis, in which the variations depend mainly on seniority, assignments, shifts and additional activities – argues the infectious disease specialist -. The point is not to say that an internal medicine specialist, a cardiac surgeon and a neurosurgeon do the same They don’t do it,” observes Bassetti, wondering whether the current system adequately recognizes the differences in complexity, training, responsibility and sacrifices of doctors.
“Differentiate salaries”
For the infectious disease specialist, the solution comes from a change in remuneration paradigm. “We must necessarily find a way to differentiate salaries – he says -. There are places where no one wants to go to work, such as the emergency room or some disadvantaged areas: we will have to pay them more”. This is to overcome the logic of the “one salary for everyone”. According to Bassetti, maintaining a uniform salary for all categories risks compromising the stability of public healthcare: “It is not possible for us to have a single salary for everyone. We must change if we want to save this national healthcare system”.
Since October 2019 Matteo Bassetti has been director of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in Genoa and full professor of infectious diseases at the University of Genoa. Here is the text of his post:
👨⚕️ How much does a #doctor really earn in Italy?
Years of university.
Specialization.
Nights, holidays, enormous responsibilities.
And then?
In the NHS, the salary structure is still strongly linked to a common contractual basis for medical management, with differences arising above all from seniority, assignments, shifts and additional activities.
The point is not to say that an internist, a cardiac surgeon and a neurosurgeon do the same job. They don’t.
The point is to ask whether the remuneration system really recognizes, even economically, differences in:
🧠 complexity
❤️ responsibility
⏱️ training
🚨 workload
📚 years of sacrifices
And when we look at the salaries of medical specialists in other European countries, the comparison becomes even more interesting.
The question is not just “how much does a doctor earn?”
The question is:
👉 How much is the responsibility of a doctor worth economically?