East City. Dolly Galeano. Regional Agency.
“This year implied important improvements in the service, since we started the administration of chemotherapies in May they have practically quintupled; in June we did 25 and this month we reached 200 sessions ”, was the evaluation made by Dr. José Samudio, head of the Oncology Unit of the Regional Hospital of Ciudad del Este, one year after its inauguration.
“Improvements in armchairs, computers, thanks to donations, and in the matter of medicines we continue with problems in certain drugs, but it has improved a lot since in recent months we have reached a 70% supply”, added Samudio.
Read more: Recommendations to end the year without excess food consumption
The Oncology Unit offers services in a pavilion built on the premises of the Ciudad del Este Regional Hospital by the Bilal Esgaib Charitable Foundation, an entity that organized an act for the celebration today. The health authorities thanked the entity for supporting public health.
“There is still much to do, we are working for a palliative care service, we need a pathological anatomy service that has immunohistochemical studies, we have to work with imaging studies, that is, tomography, resonance, PEST / CT It is fundamental for oncology patients, we do not have that here, we have to work on medium-term projects to have these diagnostic tools, there is a long way to go, ”the oncologist also said, as part of his balance of the first year of service .
A Specialized Center in Oncology, with all the services required for a comprehensive treatment, not only adults but also pediatrics, is really what they are aiming for with the work, as he explained.
The unit works with five cancer surgeons, two clinical oncologists, two mastologists, a psychologist, a nutritionist, and three nurses trained in comprehensive cancer care.
Initially, the chemotherapy room had the capacity to attend 8 patients per day; One year after their qualification, they have a care capacity of 15 patients per day. 736 chemotherapy sessions were carried out this year since May 26, when they began to be administered and the largest number is in this December with 200 sessions, according to the data provided.
Read more: Black widow: neighbors clean and find several spiders of the same species
Dr. José Samudio indicated that among the patients are people who come from other departments such as Caazapá, Canindeyú, Itapúa, Guairá and even Cordillera. “It is a large population that we are serving and we need to provide more comprehensive responses,” said the oncologist.
He mentioned that they have the support of the National Cancer Institute of the Fight Against Cancer Program. There is no official statistic on how many cancer patients there are in Alto Paraná, but in the Oncology Unit, there are 536 people with treatment until the month of October, to which the new ones must be added between November and December.
The other pioneering institution in oncology service is the Apostar por la Vida Foundation, which has the “Teresa Amelia” Oncology Center in Hernandarias where they perform between 50 and 70 chemotherapy applications per month.
– .