Medical specializations, ruling overturns the rankings

An order from the Council of State arrives which risks upsetting the ranking of medical specialization schools after accepting the appeal of 27 young white coats. The ruling, which overturns the previous decision of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, is about to have its effects on over 17 thousand candidates who participated in the selection process throughout Italy in July and who in the meantime, in early November, started the courses.

The 27 candidates, assisted by the lawyer Antonio De Angelis, contested the correction of multiple choice question number 34 of the test.

According to what has been reconstructed, the answer given by the appellants - "no prophylaxis" - was considered incorrect during the correction, with the consequent penalization in the final score. The Council of State instead considered that a multiple choice question must admit only one unequivocally correct answer, and that, in light of the scientific literature and the wording of the text, the appellants' answer could not be considered incorrect.

As a result of the ordinance, the Ministry of the University will have to award the 27 applicants full points for the correct answer and cancel the related penalty, with a consequent advancement in the ranking. The file now returns to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, called to urgently schedule the hearing on the merits.

The scope of the ruling goes beyond the individual applicants: since it concerns the same question administered on a national basis, a possible redetermination of the scores could alter the admission thresholds for the various specialization schools, paving the way for similar requests from other candidates who had provided the same answer.

"The ordinance can be executed immediately - the lawyer Antonio De Angelis explains to ANSA - the Ministry of University and Research will have to overturn the ranking, which may also mean intervening in an important way on the lives of these people, given that for many, lessons began in early November".

Furthermore, the lawyer points out, the principle applies to all doctors who gave that answer and who would therefore be penalized in the score. An audience of thousands of young doctors who can make the same arguments today.

This is why another avalanche of appeals is now possible.