The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a shadow on Polish oncology. Every third study or therapy was canceled due to an epidemic. The problems that patients have been struggling with in institutions for years have also deepened. What is cancer treatment like during a pandemic?
Cancer patient in a pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the problems that Polish oncology has been struggling with for years. It goes, among others lack of coordination of diagnostics and treatment, staff shortages and disastrous organization of treatment in institutions. At the Economic Forum in Karpacz during the panel “Oncology: how to deal with the growing burden during a pandemic?” experts discussed how the pandemic affected oncology.
– Cancer patients are at a disadvantage during the pandemic. Looking at the issue of the so-called green card, it may seem that during a pandemic we have a healthier society, less suffering from cancer – noted Szymon Chrostowski, president of the “Let’s Win Health” foundation. This is, of course, an ironic answer. In the month of the deepest lockdown, 29 fewer green cards were issued than usual, which is tangible evidence that potentially sick patients did not see a doctor, possibly due to a pandemic.
– There is a high probability that patients who have not been tested for various reasons will go to the hospital with advanced, disseminated cancer after the pandemic. At the moment, we have postponed death sentences – added Chrostowski.
We were all scared
The President of the Federation of Polish Patients, Stanisław Maćkowiak, added that at the beginning of the pandemic, we were all scared. Hospitals operated in a different mode, scheduled admissions were suspended, and visits to specialists were postponed.
– The patient, who had the choice of either getting infected or gritting his teeth and enduring for some more time without medical consultation, chose the latter – explained Maćkowiak.
The confusion caused by the message about the development of the pandemic in the months that followed did not help either. The patient was confused, did not know what to believe. Maćkowiak believes that the message is still ambiguous.
Anna Kotuła, deputy director of the department for finance and management at the National Institute of Oncology, branch in Gliwice, also admitted that initially patients did not come to the examination out of fear.
– March and April brought 30 percent. declines among patients, but now it looks better. Every person who needed a diagnosis, the so-called first-time patients were admitted. All control services scheduled for this period have stopped.
The pandemic forced hospitals and institutions to completely reorganize, which for some fared better, others were worse. With the duration of the pandemic, these new procedures are likely to run more efficiently.
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