The Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia directly contacted those responsible for different Peruvian hospitals to limit the irregular arrival of children with cancer to Barcelona.
The increasing arrival of pediatric oncology patients from Peru to the Catalan capital, reported by EL PAÍS two months ago, represents greater logistical and healthcare tension for the Sant Joan de Déu and Vall d'Hebron hospitals in Barcelona, where families attend. almost directly from the airport to receive emergency treatment in highly serious situations.
In the last year and a half, Barcelona hospitals have treated, on average, one family in an irregular situation per week who comes from Peru to treat childhood cancer.
The flow of these families illustrates the complexity of finding a balance between the healthcare service and the economic balance of the health system.
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From the airport to the hospital: Catalonia investigates the increase in Peruvian children with cancer who are treated in Barcelona
The Department's first efforts were initially carried out at the political level, when the increasing arrival of Peruvian families was detected in 2022.
Even with Josep Maria Argimon in office, the ministry met with the consulate in Barcelona.
After the situation persists;
His successor, Manel Balcells, went further: he met with the Peruvian ambassador in Madrid at the end of October 2023 and intensified contacts with the Peruvian Ministry of Health and the Intangible Solidarity Health Fund (FISSAL), the executing unit of the financing of health interventions for the population.
Already in December, Health reduced the contacts to the health field and conveyed the need to regulate the situation with those responsible for the main hospitals (Rebagliati, Almenara, Niño San Borja, Sabogal and the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases) in Lima, the capital.
The counseling considers that word of mouth and information on social networks and the Internet is the starting point of the phenomenon.
A favorable case known among the community, he understands, gives rise to families without good prognoses to take the leap driven by hope.
However, representatives of the Peruvian community in Barcelona consulted by EL PAÍS admit that doctors from the same Peruvian hospitals raise the possibility of finding a solution in Catalonia when the disease does not have a remedy in the Peruvian system.
“They tell you that in Peru there is no solution, but that in Barcelona there may be possibilities,” they share.
Health trusts that the same doctors and specialists in Peru will avoid sending a message of false hope and that the treatment of childhood cancer in Catalonia will be carried out through regular channels, through agreements.
“Sometimes patients arrive confident of finding a solution in Barcelona, but this is not always the case, and it is very hard for everyone,” department sources admit.
Barcelona hospitals know of cases of migrant families who have mortgaged and sold all their belongings to obtain plane tickets to Catalonia, and who once they arrive do not find adequate treatment.
The Peruvian Center of Barcelona, a reference entity for the group in the city, already admitted to this newspaper that it carried out pedagogical support tasks for all those families who contacted them to find out about the possibility of moving to the city for health reasons.
“We tell them that they have to access through the established circuits and not show up at the hospital from one day to the next,” conceded its manager, Pina Quiñones.
According to Health data, between mid-2022, when registration began, and December 31, 2023, Catalonia treated 110 pediatric oncology patients who irregularly accessed the health system, of which 80% came from Peru. .
A good part of the rest of the patients also arrive from other South American countries.
In recent months, Paraguayan patients have also landed, although the absolute number is low, according to the ministry.
The arrival of pediatric oncology migrants does not affect the waiting lists because the Catalan system assumes and treats the demand mostly imminently once the diagnosis is made.
The most common childhood cancers are leukemias (25%), neoplasms of the Central Nervous System (CNS) (20%) and lymphomas (14%).
It is estimated that in Catalonia between 170 and 200 new cases are diagnosed annually (0-14 years).
Cancer is the first cause of mortality in boys and girls from 5 to 14 years old and the second cause from 15 to 24 years old, after accidents, according to Health.
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