The New Canary Islands-Canarian Bloc (NC-BC) deputy for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Yoné Caraballo, demanded this Wednesday in the Parliament of the Canary Islands improvements in diagnostic means for cancer on the island.
Thus, to a Non-Law Proposal proposed by the PSOE for the installation of cyclotrons in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, the Canarian deputy requested via amendment the installation of a PET-CT in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, given that there are currently five units in the Canary Islands and none of them are in the so-called yellow islands. This amendment was rejected by the proposing group.
“The PET-CT, or what is the same, the gamma scan, is essential to know the magnitude of the disease, since it offers an image for the diagnosis that visualizes the extent of the spread of cancer cells throughout the body”, explains Caraballo.
The deputy, who is a nurse by profession, continues explaining that “through a radiopharmaceutical that is administered intravenously and which is made in a cyclotron in Madrid and transported to the Canary Islands, you have the ability to capture malignant cells, accumulating in hot areas, and giving a precise image of the whole organism where secondary or metastatic tumors can be found”. This service, continues Caraballo, “has been requested in Lanzarote by associations such as AFA and AECC, since it would substantially improve the service of the recently inaugurated Radiotherapy Unit of the Doctor Molina Orosa Hospital”.
Caraballo believes that “it is necessary and fair for the Ministry of Health to make an effort despite the 70 million cut that has been made in the modernization of equipment in chapter IV of the General Budgets of the Canary Islands, items that are intended to implement this type of services, for example, in the hospitals of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and avoiding the transfer of patients to the hospitals of the capital islands”.
With everything, Yoné Caraballo points out the importance of continuing to advance in public means to detect and combat cancer in the Canary Islands and, especially, in the non-capital islands, as well as moving towards full “health independence” of the archipelago with respect to the peninsula.
“Self-government enables us to advance in full health autonomy. Strengthening public health and not depending on anyone external ensures greater reaction capacity and better quality services for our citizens. We demonstrated this in the pandemic, where the management of the Autonomous Community itself was more efficient and faster than that carried out by the State when it centralized decision-making and the purchase of materials”, reflects Yoné Caraballo.
