What is being dubbed by Health Minister Paulo Macedo as an “administrative mistake” has led to blood cancer patients waiting almost two years for appointments at a hospital that no longer deals with them.
Jornal de Notícias’ front page story on Tuesday described how patients waiting for a haematology appointment at Aveiro Hospital have been left hanging on for an average of 658 days – when they should in fact have started treatment within a week of being diagnosed.
Even worse, Aveiro Hospital closed down its blood department over a year ago.
Since the closure – due to a huge demand that clogged waiting lists to the point of no return – patients have been forwarded to Coimbra University Hospital. But for some reason, Aveiro continued to take appointment bookings.
Health Minister Paulo Macedo was quick to assure Jornal de Notícias that all the patients on the waiting list will now be seen by a doctor by March at the very latest.
Agreeing that the government must understand what went wrong, he said the situation arose from an “administrative mistake”.
However, nothing was said about the negative repercussions this mistake may have had on patients’ health.
Meantime, a source from Coimbra Hospital has admitted that the new influx of patients is “clogging up services and causing problems”.
