The Ordem dos Médicos doctors association has reacted angrily to the news that Coimbra University Hospital is no longer treating gynaecological cancer patients as priorities for surgery. “This is a very serious situation,” Roque da Cunha of the independent doctors’ syndicate agreed. The hospital has justified its decision, saying that if patients are earmarked for chemotherapy, surgery should be “cancelled, not suspended”.
The Portugal Resident received this reply from the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC) regarding the story above.
Subject: Gynaecology Department
On the recent news, published in Portugal Resident on the 28th January, 2015, entitled “Coimbra University Hospital no longer treating gynaecological cancer patients as priorities” concerning the Gynaecology Department of Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC), our Hospital issued a press note, from which we translate a few remarking points:
– The Gynaecology Department of CHUC does not have waiting list for any kind of surgery of any kind of benign or malignant pathology
– The published “Internal Instruction” was only meant to guarantee that the same administrative procedures were adopted by all the members of the Department
– All patients are assigned for surgery on clinical grounds and criteria only; all patients clinically classified as “with priority” are scheduled as “with priority”
– These instructions do not interfere with the time lapse between the clinical decision and the effective surgery procedure
– Patients with benign or malignant neoplasia surgery indication are scheduled with no delay other than the one that does arise from eventual chemotherapy or radiotherapy prescribed as adjuvant, prior to surgery
– All patients are treated on the recommended therapeutic schedules.
CHUC strongly emphasizes that we have full capacity for the correct and correctly scheduled treatment of all gynaecologic pathology, with no delay and with no waiting list.
Thus, we kindly request Portugal Resident to publish the present NOTE, in order to assure readers that in no occasion the Gynaecology Department of Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra has mistreated or will ever mistreat any of its patients, regardless of the complexity of their pathology or treatment requirements.
In fact, CHUC abilities and prestige have been consistently established and were the grounds for a major cooperation agreement with TK, DAK and Europe Assistance, whose associate members have direct access to CHUC (on a specific protocol basis) to much differentiated therapeutic interventions, such as cardiac surgery and cardiac transplantation, interventional cardiology (angioplasty, valvuloplasty and coronary thrombectomy), eye tumors brachytherapy, live-donor kidney transplantation or live-donor liver transplantation, sex reassignment surgery and major trauma treatment centre.
CHUC, 02-02-2015
