Expanding cancer care services and creating specialised oncology centres are subjects the Ministry of Health is analysing, said the health minister Paulo Macedo.
The minister was responding to an official report that revealed that last year’s cancer surgeries through the national health services had decreased, patient waiting lists had increased and there was a lack of specialised cancer care centres in the country.
Released by the General-Directorate for Health (DGS) on Friday last week, the report about the capacity of oncology wards in public health units stressed the need for more specialised centres in order to cut surgery waiting lists.
Data showed cancer surgeries had decreased by 291 last year when compared to 2011. This is the first time the number of oncologic surgeries had dropped since a patient surgery list system was created in 2006.
Researcher Nuno Miranda from the DGS said: “The difference in numbers is minimal but it worries us that there has been an increase in waiting time for cancer patients needing surgery and thus the list keeps growing. And surgery is the most important weapon in the fight against cancer,” said.
However, the report reads that most oncology centres in Portugal carry out over 1,000 surgeries per year and that the number of patients undergoing surgical treatment in these institutes has grown, unlike the descending tendency registered in public hospitals.
“There are chemotherapy units in public hospitals where treatment numbers are too low,” the authors of the study said. They questioned whether it is worth keeping these units open or if they should be incorporated into a larger network of cancer care centres.
In light of this information, Paulo Macedo said that the Ministry of Health was analysing how it could develop the existing specialised cancer centres in an effort to allow more surgeries to be scheduled through the National Health Service.
However, he was keen to announce recent reinforcements of cancer care treatment. He gave the example of a new brain tumour treatment centre at the Garcia de Orta hospital in Almada, which had just received high technology equipment donated by various foundations, and new equipment to treat intraocular tumours now available at the Coimbra University Hospital, which will now offer treatment to patients who previously had to seek it outside of the country.
