Acreditar warned on Tuesday of the financial hardship parents of children with cancer are experiencing, advocating the need to increase the cost of sick leave for child care to 100%.
“It would be very important that guardians can take advantage of 100% paid leave to look after a child with cancer (as in the case of cancer patients) and that, especially at more critical stages of the journey, both parents can take advantage of this leave,” states Acreditar in a statement released on the eve of International Children’s Cancer Day.
Speaking to Lusa, Acreditar CEO Margarida Cruz said that “inflation, which has worsened the income of the Portuguese, has a very big impact on the parents or caregivers of children with cancer.”
“And, therefore, we feel a growing number of requests for support and a request to increase the average values of our economic and food support,” said Margarida Cruz, adding that in the field of support with food baskets, which are given in the supermarket cards, the values have already been reviewed.
As for economic support, the official said that the revision of the amounts to be paid by social security to these families somehow compensates for their needs.
Like its international partners, Acreditar, the Association of Parents and Friends of Children with Cancer, celebrates the day by bringing to the fore the concerns of parents who put social support first, survivors and some pediatric professionals. oncology.
“In Portugal, about 400 new diagnoses are made every year. Despite a survival rate of 80%, childhood cancer continues to be the number one cause of death due to the most common disease in children and adolescents,” Acreditar says.
In survival, complications cause a reduction in quality of life in two-thirds of survivors, and one-third of them have severe consequences.
“Without being directly impacted by the problems that the SNS is experiencing, there are indications and growing concern that this may affect childhood cancer,” he emphasizes.
For this reason, the association stated that “it is necessary to push for a National Cancer Control Strategy”, believing that “the document should better reflect the needs of pediatric oncology in Portugal”.
“It would be important that the ‘stakeholders’ in this area, namely health professionals, parents and victims or their representatives, be heard by those who developed the Strategy. the final text,” he defended, noting that he did not know the final text, which was delivered to the Ministry of Health.
Margarida Cruz said they had made a “comprehensive comparison” between what was in the Portuguese document and what was in the strategy defined for paediatrics, and felt that “the importance given to paediatrics at the European level is not the same as at the national level.” document”.
For Acreditar, it would be fundamental to the Strategy to ensure that pediatric patients continue to be citizens with equal rights in terms of access to school, psychological monitoring or the regulation of rights such as access to credit.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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