There Are More Employees with Cancer at the Curie Cancer Hospital than In the Rest of the Health Centers
<p style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">It was discovered by the Audit of the City of Buenos Aires. The Hospital does not have a Safety and Health area. In the operating room anesthetic gas leaks were found, those can cause spontaneous abortions and cardiac abnormalities. However, there was a reduction in the delays, they optimized the distribution of nurses, and patient satisfaction reached 92%.</span></p> <div> </div>
The AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish, found that the prevalence of cancer diseases among the employees of the Maria Curie Cancer Hospital" is above average considering the City Hospitals", and at the Caballito Center "the limit to the number of hours of exposure of personnel is not met," for example, in the operating room of the health center, leakage of anesthetic gases were found.” Which, if inhaled, can cause "spontaneous abortions and heart disease" among other difficulties.
However, it should be noted that at the end of the audit a "system of gas extraction” was installed, although without a ticket or purchase order, “the acquisition of two surgical aspirators gases were approved.” The watchdog report adds that, despite the existence of National Law 19.587, Health and Safety, the Curie Hospital did not create a security-related and hygiene area.
Curie Followup
The data above is the addition of a monitoring report of the AGCBA approved this year and conducted from March to November 2009, according to what the body had stated in a 2007 investigation on the Marie Curie Hospital. Hence it arises that "the consultation times had improved," the distribution of nurses was optimized, before they were concentrated on the night shift, and "increased surgery productivity", with operations in the afternoon. A degree of user satisfaction close to 92% was also obtained.
Nevertheless, as in 2007, the audit said the lack of control over the management of funds for cancer research continues. Meanwhile, it explained that the Buenos Aires Ministry of Health, through the Research Advisory Council, continues without systematic clinical research budgets practiced in the Oncology Hospital.
The original report had also detected "no control" by ethics and bioethics committees, responsible for approving (proposed) research protocols, "lack of supporting documentation," and "control in the management of funds" between researchers and those who finance the studies. Finally, the last audit verified that the hospital “did not make a review" of the protocols questioned in the previous report.
Finally, the AGCBA said the Curie Hospital continues without an effective control system for the transfer of medical waste. Even though in 2007 the Audit warned of "improper handling" of these wastes, even in the last audit “spills” were observed in public places. Note that the "cleanliness of the different areas” is not guided and that the cleaning staff still lacks the necessary protection.
