Osakidetza in general and the OSI Araba in particular have not been alien to the delays who have suffered the different screening programs due to the pandemic.
Three have already been running for years in the CAV, those that serve to detect early the cancers of the breast, colon, rectum, and cervix, and all three have managed to shorten the delays they have been experiencing in recent months, according to a recent parliamentary response from the Basque Minister of Health, Gotzone Sagardui.
The health minister, in two reports sent to the Chamber of Gasteiz at the request of EH Bildu, stresses that Osakidetza has already begun to catch up on the delays accumulated during the health crisis, which according to Sagardui acknowledges “has affected normal development” dand these programs.
previous activity
However, today “it is recovering previous activity in all OSIs” and said recovery is already “complete” in what refers to the screening of cervical cancer.
Sagardui assumes in the report delays of up to eleven months in breast cancer tests in three OSI, including the one in Araba, although he justifies that they have been mainly due to “a profound technological change” How is the installation of the new mammographs.
The delays in the OSI Rioja Alavesa lengthen in the meantime up to six months.
However, the health owner defends that the development of this specific program is “positive”, taking into account that the Basque Health Service started from a situation derived from the pandemic with a “reduced summons”.
In less than 26 months
As of today, 73% of the target population –women from 50 to 69 years old and also from 40 to 49 with a history– “is being cited in less than 26 months”, which means that the average delay is in global numbers in the two months. Not surprisingly, mammograms are performed every two years.
Sagardui, however, has not hidden his concern on several occasions about the negative impact that the pandemic will have on cancer survival.
