This Wednesday, the Health Secretary admitted that not all of the more than 9,000 cancer patients the government had presented as awaiting surgery beyond the maximum guaranteed response time (TMRG) had actually gone beyond that time.
Confronted in Parliament by Socialist MP Mariana Vieira da Silva about the more than 9,000 patients who the government said in presenting the Emergency Health Plan were awaiting surgery outside the TMRG, the minister said: “More than 9,000 patients are cancer patients who, since their occurrence, all pathologies requiring surgical intervention are a priority.”
The minister was speaking before the parliamentary health committee, where she was briefed on these figures, and Socialist MP Mariana Vieira da Silva recalled that in March, 25% of the more than 9,000 cancer patients awaiting surgery exceeded the recommended time limit, which was the equivalent of about 2,300 people .
Faced with these numbers, Ana Paula Martins said: “All cancer patients should be given priority over other non-cancer patients according to medical classification.”
At the end of May, when the measures constituting the Health Emergency Plan were presented, the Minister said that more than 266,000 users were registered for surgery, of which more than 74,000 were above (TMRG), of which 9,374 were cancer patients.
In fact, the published paper estimates there are 9374 cancer patients awaiting surgery outside the TMRG.
Regarding cancer patients, the minister said that waiting times for examinations will now be “precisely recorded”, as is the case for operations.
“Now it will be registered and no patient will delay diagnosis because they do not have MCDT. [meio complementar e diagnóstico e terapêutica]”, the minister said, adding: “There are areas, such as lung or pancreatic cancer, for which it takes us more than a month to diagnose due to the lack of additional diagnostic tools.”
Ana Paula Martins also acknowledged that certain TMRGs are in some cases outdated and require revision.