The President of the Breast Cancer Association of Tenerife (Love yourself)María del Carmen Bonfante, has denounced in the Parliament of the Canary Islands the long waits that women suffer to have their mammary tumors operated, more than two months indicated by official statistics in many cases.
In addition, as Bonfante has said in an appearance before the Health Commission of the Parliament of Canary IslandsIt is not understood that waiting times are different at the Hospital Universitario de Canarias, in La Laguna, and at the Hospital de La Candelaria, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
“If you are born in La Laguna you have less time to suffer than if you are born in Santa Cruz,” Bonfante denounced, who does not explain where the official statistics come from, which ensure that patients in La Candelaria never take more than two months to be operated.
Since a lump is detected in a woman or a man, it can take “up to three, four and five months” to be operated, said the president of Ámate, who thus denied the official figures in which it is ensured that it does not take longer of two months: “the women who have undergone surgery tell us how long it is taking and the suffering of waiting four months” while they watch the tumor grow.
Bonfante denounced that, when faced with a suspicion of breast cancer, at the University Hospital of the Canary Islands the results of the tests are available in ten days, but at the Hospital de La Candelaria it takes 29 days.
To expedite the operations, the doctors, with the support of Ámate, propose that the operating rooms be opened in the afternoon, but the answer, Bonfante said, is always the same: “there is a lack of money.”
“As long as hospitals are run by political parties and not by doctors this is not going to work”, he commented.
The president of Ámate also denounced the undeserved treatment of women in the south of Tenerife, where 340,000 people live, who cannot receive chemotherapy except in hospitals in the metropolitan area, when in places like La Palma, with 85,000 inhabitants, it is possible.
The distance from the south of Tenerife forces the patients to take a bus at five in the morning to receive chemotherapy, and return at five in the afternoon with the side effects of the treatment on top of them.
“They don’t deserve it,” Bonfante insisted, just as they don’t deserve it to be considered impossible that there is a possibility of radiotherapy in the south, when it does exist in other less populated territories such as Lanzarote.
Another of the complaints of breast cancer patients is the delay of two or three years in resolving the degree of disability, which prevents them from receiving aid that is essential to receive immediately.
He also claimed the ability of women to decide to have the other breast removed in the event of a tumor being detected, something that is not allowed.
Carrying out preventive mammograms before the age of 50 is another of Ámate’s demands, as is the improvement of palliative care facilities, in which privacy is not guaranteed to die with dignity.
“We all deserve something more for the last hour,” he said.
