The Health Department announces a new rule against "excessive delays" for breast reconstruction after cancer.

BarcelonaThe years-long wait in public healthcare for breast reconstruction after breast cancer may be numbered in Catalonia, according to the Minister of Health, Olga Pané. The head of the department has pledged to put an end to the "excessive delays" suffered by some women who underwent a mastectomy years ago and have yet to undergo surgery to reconstruct their amputated breasts. These delays cause physical, psychological, and social harm to all patients, who cannot rebuild their lives after cancer because they remain mutilated even though their tumors were removed years ago. This Thursday, the Minister announced that she will approve a new instruction that will bring order to the classification of these patients and ensure that each center is clear about the "procedures and protocols" to follow, thus avoiding long waiting lists. Pané has said that the rule is expected to come into force after the summer following a question from Commons MP David Cid, who was also particularly active in trying to solve this problem last term.

In this way, the Department of Health wants to correct an error that has been dragging on for more than two years. In February 2023, it modified Decree 354/2002 so thatBreast surgeries after cancer have a guaranteed waiting timeand are carried out in less than six months. This was done after the ARA publisheda shocking report with photos of mutilated womenwho had been waiting for reconstruction for years after tumor removal. However, the new regulations, which came into effect on August 10 of last year, were already flawed: they excluded women who were already on the waiting list and those who had suffered complications after their first surgery. These women must wait even longer, as new diagnoses overtake them.

This is the case of Aliki Nikolaou, 40, who she let herself be photographed half-naked by this newspaper last September to denounce the long waiting lists that continued to exist despite the new instructions. At that time, according to the Minister of Health, there were around forty women who, like Aliki, had been waiting for reconstruction for years, even before the instruction came into force, which was created precisely to shorten the waiting time.

Pané has claimed that in recent months they have worked case by case to reduce this list and has assured that there are currently ten women who are still in this situation, that is, they have been waiting more than two years since their mastectomy for reconstruction. In addition, there are another 104 women waiting, of which twenty exceed the guaranteed time of six months, she added.

Commitment of the Parliament

Aliki and Gemma González, another patient who waited years for reconstruction due to a complication, appeared before the Parliament's Health Committee last February to denounce the situation. At the time, all parliamentary groups except Vox They committed to reforming the regulations The groups assured that they would ask the Health Department to review the existing protocol, and finally, this Thursday, the department's response arrived, predicting that the new instructions will come into effect by the end of the summer. However, it remains to be seen what impact the Health Department's proposed reform will have, given the lack of professionals and operating rooms to take on the challenge and reduce waiting lists.