The new IPO Adult Day Hospital in Lisbon, inaugurated this Friday by the Minister of Health, increases the capacity for chemotherapy treatments by 40%, allowing for around 40,000 sessions per year.
“This is a new space that increases the treatment capacity (…) by around 40%. In addition to being a more functional, more modern, more beautiful and more welcoming space, it also has this potential, allowing us to treat up to 40% more people,” the president of the Lisbon IPO, Eva Falcão, told the Lusa agency. .
According to Eva Falcão, the new space has the capacity to perform around 200 treatments per day, with 25 chemotherapy chairs, 10 more than in the previous building, and maintains the 10 beds for those who are bedridden, but in a more modern space.
He added that the building, the result of an investment by the Lisbon IPO, budgeted at around one million euros, “is a temporary structure” until the new external consultation building is built, a process that “will still take some time.” .
“Chemotherapy, which is one of the most powerful weapons in the treatment of cancer, is performed in a day hospital and was necessary, given the bottleneck we had, the demand to which we are subject and the increase in activity that IPO Lisbon found, in terms of a broader, more functional and more modern structure,” explained the president of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO) in Lisbon.
Despite the increase in demand, the president stated that the IPO has managed to control waiting lists, even with positive signs in some areas, which means that “a lot more work is being done.”
He explained that there was a growth of around 36% in terms of outpatient surgeries and around 8% in terms of first consultations.
Eva Falcão highlighted that the new Day Hospital also has the potential to free up hospitalization spaces in the IPO, where these treatments were sometimes performed due to the difficulties that existed in the previous day hospital.
On the other hand, it is a very important space for professionals, “because they have better working conditions, happier, brighter and, above all, more functional,” highlighted the president of the Lisbon IPO.
Speaking to Lusa, at the end of a meeting with the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, after the inauguration ceremony of the new Day Hospital, Eva Falcão said that there was a “very important acceptance” by the government of the need have a new outpatient clinic building, which will concentrate all the IPO’s outpatient treatments.
“We will work together, now very closely with the guardianship, to convert what is an architectural project into a physical structure.“, he highlighted.
During the symbolic inauguration of the plaque on the new building, the minister stated that the Government will do everything possible to “make the dream of going public for many years come true,” referring to the new building.
“There is no one who does not want the IPO to develop and also expand, but we have to find a way to do it,” he highlighted.
About the new Day Hospital, Ana Paula Martins stated that it shows that IPO “is still alive and developing more assistance capacity.””But he also continues to develop very important research projects that greatly benefit patients.”
“But above all, the most important thing is that through these small and large works we can ensure that patients have better conditions and that professionals can also have better conditions, because humanization belongs to both,” said the minister, who visited the new space and spoke with IPO professionals.
In 2024, until the end of September, around 29 thousand chemotherapy sessions were carried out, with growth in this activity expected this year.
Source: Observadora
