Without infrastructure “Oncology Center – Hope” say the parents of children with cancer of the club “Floda”

The parents of children with neoplastic disease or “” talking about the Hope Children’s Center, as they report: “Simple chambers without infrastructure, study and programming were simply declared …”Oncology Center””. For a year now the members of the Association of Parents of Children with Neoplastic Disease “Floda” have testified their anxiety about the “Marianna V. Vardinoyannis – ELPIDA” Children’s Oncology Center” (which was set up by a bill a year ago as a private legal person) pointing out that it would face serious problems and that changes did not move in the right direction. Today 12 months later, reality comes to confirm them, as – as they say – reform does not proceed in a coordinated manner. The only reform made, they say, was to “proclaim “Oncology Center” … simple chambers without infrastructure and organization”. According to the announcement of the Association entitled “Why Prime Minister?”, the State cannot understand the obvious. How can he not declare in “Oncology Center” the simple nursing chambers of children, “without surgery, without intensive, without an MRI and radiotherapy department, without simply being able to carry out neither a complete blood test nor an X-ray!”, as parents say. Flame: “300 children suffer every year from cancer in our country” According to the parents of cancer children themselves, about 300 children from 1 day to 17 years old are suffering from cancer every year in our country with the vast majority of them being hospitalized in Athens. The issue, as parents say, is serious and any hasty move, without study and programming, “without the eminently responsible, our doctors, will cost children’s lives.” “All over the world in the creation and operation of hospitals the first reason is for doctors. What exactly does this change mean for their work? Shouldn’t they know? For example, who will finance the operation of the Transplant Unit laboratory if the Flame stops doing so?”, they note. The “Floda” Association has repeatedly exhibited its positions in the House during the discussion of the Bill, the Ministry of Health and also publicly with a series of press releases. “We cannot understand why the State urgently needs to declare “oncology center” the nursing chambers of children who today largely support their operation to the 15 people and clinical studies funded by the Flame, the Association of Parents”, parents wonder in their letter. Association of Flames: Requesting an extension of 6 months The Association calls for an extension of at least 6 months to the application of Law 5034/2023, in order to give time for the establishment of a Commission, which, with the supervision of the Minister of Health and the participation of representatives of the administrations of the two Paediatric Hospitals, the scientific staff of the oncology departments and the other specialities of the paediatric science “daily care for our children”, as parents say, as well as representatives of the same, to prepare jointly and seriously and responsibly “Operation Regulation”, which will lay down the terms and conditions for the operation of the Oncology Centre. “Ex-post committees and para-committees and endless discussions on channels will not – unfortunately – be able to bring back children’s lives, who are called upon to fight a life-threatening disease,” parents point out in sharp “languages”. “We seek to give at least 6 months’ extension to the implementation of the Law and participation of doctors and parents in the planning of the Centre with responsibility, coordination and supervision of the Ministry of Health” repeats the “Floga”. Association of Flames: The letter a year ago to the Ministry of Health By the end of February 2023 the parents of the Association “Floga” had testified to the Ministry of Health and then the Minister of Health, Thanos Plyris their positions and comments, stressing that they are opposed to the secession of the oncology departments from the two pediatric hospitals “Agia Sophia” and “P. & A. Kyriakos”. The Scientific Society for Pediatric Hematology, however, had taken a position: “Little patients already enjoy optimal treatment, with the most modern therapeutic protocols, within the best care conditions, of equal proportions of centres abroad, with the aim always to treat the child with cancer in a holistic manner. Access to advanced treatments, including the transplantation of haematopoietic progenitor cells, is given while it is possible scientifically and medically to prepare and implement advanced cell and gene treatments,” said the members of the EPAPAO. Any change in structure and/or revision of all the above, as they said, would lead to mathematical accuracy in the possible cancellation of our country’s cancer achievements in the child and the teenager, in regression and loss of valuable time, as many processes should be discontinued or redefined. “Without the cooperation of the two hospitals and the equipment that remains in them, the new Centre cannot offer any service to children so it is not possible to have any form of autonomy,” the members of the EPAPAO noted, which unfortunately is confirmed ‘formally’ today. The parents of the “Floda” Association insist that at least 6 months be extended to the application of the Law and the participation of doctors and parents in the planning of the Centre with responsibility, coordination and supervision of the Ministry of Health.