Since the closure of the radiotherapy unit nine years ago, oncology patients must travel to Caracas where the only machines that work in the public health sector are located, or have a minimum budget of three thousand dollars to pay for treatment in the private sector
Laura Clisanchez | Mail of the Caroni
Oncology patients demand the reopening of the Virgen del Valle Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine Oncology Unit, in Ciudad Bolívar, which has been in technical closure for nine years due to the breakdown of four specialized machines, due to the disinvestment of the Ministry for Health.
The list of cancer patients waiting for radiotherapy exceeds 100 people in Bolívar according to unofficial information.
Since the unit closed, patients must travel to Caracas where the only machines that work in the public health sector are located or have a minimum budget of three thousand dollars to pay for treatment in the private sector.
“We are in need of radiotherapy and chemotherapy resources, I am a cancer patient diagnosed a month ago, and I am behind (with treatment). Please take this health situation into account. The insurance does not arrive, we want help, we are mothers and fathers of families, we have children, grandchildren and we want to continue living a few more years, have mercy, ”said Rosiris Gómez, an oncology patient from Ciudad Bolívar, through a video broadcast on social networks .
Dealing with cancer is like racing against the clock, patients say. If you stop the sessions, the gains made are easily lost, and the cancer progresses. Recovery becomes more difficult and life expectancies distant.
The unit attached to the Ruiz y Páez hospital, in Ciudad Bolívar, had four machines that no longer work:
- The double head gamma camera, which, from gamma radiation in the patient’s body, captures images that are used in nuclear medicine to study diseases.
- Simulation tomograph, which uses an X-ray source to locate any tumor in the body and mark (or fix) its position to ensure radiation.
- The cobalt machine, which emits high-energy gamma rays and is used for external radiation therapy.
- A brachytherapy machine used to do localized radiation therapy.
“This service is very important for patients. When they are already finishing their treatment, they relapse because they cannot receive it completely,” denounced a nurse who asked to keep her name confidential.
Of the 23 radiotherapy centers in Venezuela, only three, located in the Domingo Luciani Hospital, the Luis Razetti Oncology Institute and the Padre Machado Oncology Institute located in Caracas, are currently half-functioning and only for some types of cancer.
*Also read: We have no life »: oncology patients claim before the IVSS shortage of treatments
The Government has failed to comply with national (established in the Covenin standards) and international radiotherapy regulations by failing to comply with its obligation to guarantee maintenance to reduce the risk of breakdown and radiological accidents within hospitals.
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