It is very good news for the country’s increasing number of cancer patients.
Following a damning report in Público earlier this summer – as well as worrying statistical data – health minister Paulo Macedo is pulling out all the stops to ensure cancer patients are operated on in good time, and not left languishing on hospital waiting lists.
According to news reports, this will mean operations should take place within two months of being signalled as necessary
Macedo is also reported to be putting the onus on hospital directors to justify any surgeries that do not take place within the “maximum” time limits.
His decision comes after his own service elaborated a study that shows as many as 15.6% of cancer patients had to wait “over the limit” for vital potentially life-saving operations.
Added to this, the latest health service figures that show cancers are increasing all the time.
According to a document compiled by surgical body SIGIC, doctors are predicting a “3% increase in new cases of cancer every year until 2020”.
Integral in Macedo’s attack on delays is the requirement now for week-by-week progress reports which he wants clinical directors to compile.
This way, he explains, priority patients can be pushed forwards if necessary.
Last year, SIGIC data shows that 44, 264 cancer surgeries went ahead in state and private hospitals and institutions.
