BREAST cancer patients cannot have breast reconstruction because the Health Ministry has failed to order the necessary products to go ahead with the surgery.
Women waiting for permanent implants following a recent mastectomy have been told that their surgeries will have to be postponed because the ministry has failed to order more silicone implants.
Additionally, women who will need a mastectomy and want to have either one-stage or two-stage immediate reconstruction will be disappointed to learn the health services have also run out of tissue expanders.
Both products are vital in immediate breast reconstruction.
“By having delayed reconstruction women will have to wait about a year without a breast. It also means they will have to undergo an additional surgery, which could have been avoided. Instead of being able to place the expanders immediately after the mastectomy they will have to wait to start the expansion and reconstruction later,” said a Health Ministry official, who wished to remain unnamed.
Immediate reconstruction is done at the same time as the mastectomy. An advantage to this is that the chest tissues are undamaged by radiation therapy or scarring. This often means that the final result looks better. Also, immediate reconstruction means one less surgery.
The information came to light after a group of patients complained to breast cancer forum, Europa Donna Cyprus.
The women, who have had expanders in for six months and are due to have them removed and replaced with a permanent implant, were told that their surgeries had been postponed.
Europa Donna Cyprus said yesterday it had received information that 17 to 20 women who were in “immediate” need of permanent silicone implants or tissue expanders were at risk of having their surgery cancelled indefinitely “because they have not been ordered on time by the Health Ministry’s services”.
Apparently the reason for the delay was purely administrative and over a failure to put the purchase orders to tender.
“There is not enough staff to place the orders and there is also a lack of communication between departments,” the source said.
This is no excuse according to the Cyprus breast cancer forum, which demanded the Health Ministry took immediate steps to resolve the problem so that “no woman remains exposed”.
“It is completely unacceptable,” said a spokeswoman for Europa Donna Cyprus.
Health Minister Christos Patsalides pledged to look into the matter today.
Speaking from Thessalonika, the minister said he would launch an investigation into the information as soon as he returned.
He said patients were his ministry’s number one priority but refrained from making further comment before he had a chance to look into it.
“I need to investigate the matter to see what happened [before making further comment],” said Patsalides.
Europa Donna Cyprus president Stella Kyriakidou said the ministry should purchase the products from the private sector to ensure that women could go ahead with their surgeries until the matter was resolved.
Kyriakidou said it was not women’s fault the ministry was short staffed and had no time to start procedures to ensure supplies were reordered on time.
“Women are having surgeries and they need to know that the hospital does not have any expanders. We want women to know the situation and that they are being given all the facts when the go to the hospital,” she said.
Europa Donna urged women who faced postponement of their breast reconstruction surgery due to situation to contact the forum on 22490849.
