The follow-up of cancer patients will no longer involve travel to Gran Canaria for periodic Radiation Oncology check-ups. The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Lanzarote Health Area, has launched the Satellite Radiation Oncology Unit at the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital.
From this Monday, medical follow-up appointments will be attended at the Lanzarote hospital. Until now, they had to go to the Doctor Negrín University Hospital of Gran Canaria. They will be attended at the Lanzarote hospital by the same professionals and following the same guidelines, so this satellite unit will bring assistance closer and will also facilitate comprehensive care for cancer patients in Lanzarote.
In the first week of operation of the new consultation, it is planned to attend to 39 patients. To this end, the Radiation Oncology specialists who usually follow these patients will be transferred from Gran Canaria. Gradually, healthcare activity will be increased with the assessment of urgent or palliative patients and the launch of tumor committees, culminating in the start of treatments in the linear accelerator approximately in the last quarter of this year.
The Satellite Unit of the Molina Orosa Hospital is part of the Radiation Oncology service of the Dr. Negrín University Hospital of Gran Canaria, so patients will continue to have the same portfolio of services available to them as when they traveled to Gran Canaria, thus guaranteeing quality care at all times.
The head of the Radiation Oncology service of Dr. Negrin, Marta Lloret, assures that this unit "will allow to strengthen relations with all the specialties that treat cancer and participate in the protocols and multidisciplinary meetings that are the main way to improve the quality of care for patients".
Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy is part of the multidisciplinary treatment of cancer, being indicated in up to 70% of patients suffering from this disease. Radiotherapy treatment includes, in addition to external radiotherapy, other techniques such as brachytherapy and intraoperative radiotherapy, which can be used in isolation or in combination.
The integration of this new equipment in the Radiation Oncology service will bring external radiotherapy treatment closer to patients in Lanzarote, while maintaining all the resources and experience accumulated by professionals over the years in the hospital of Gran Canaria at their disposal.
The director of the Lanzarote Health Area, Noelia Umpiérrez, and the manager of the island's Health Services, José Luis Aparicio, are satisfied with the system chosen for the management of the Radiation Oncology service in Lanzarote and thank both the professionals of the Dr. Negrín University Hospital of Gran Canaria and those of the Molina Orosa for their work and involvement in the implementation of a service as important as Radiation Oncology.
