If She Suspects Something,
She Is Disqualified!
Healthcare Poland - Only Healthy Polish Breasts To Get Mammograms
Warsaw, Poland 14 January 2010 - In an apparent healthcare system cost cutting move, women who suspect a change in their breasts are no longer eligible for free preventative treatment in Poland. Only Polish women having healthy breasts qualify for a free mammogram.
Formerly free mammograms were available to all women between 50 and 69 years of age who hadn’t previously been diagnosed with malignant breast tumors.
But new amendments to the National Health Fund’s breast cancer prevention program mean women who admit to ailments around the breast area in the pre-test survey are automatically excluded.
This is absurd. “I’d like to meet but one woman who’s breasts have never hurt,” Dr Jerzy Giermek of the Warsaw Oncology Centre said.
Oncologic surgeon Dr Marek Bębenek said as many as 80 per cent of women may have ailments as a result of common breast disorders or hormone treatment.
“Patients come for the tests because they are concerned about the pain. They can’t be disqualified, because preventative testing then becomes pointless,” he said.
A spokesperson for the National Health Fund said the decision was consulted with someone but that he couldn’t name names. Journalists were unable to find a consultant who even knew about the change.
“That’s why together we’re going to ask the Fund chairman for change,” Dr Giermek said.
The Preventative Test Coordination Centre director Jolanta Kotowska said “for now we’re not turning patients away, though formally the Fund might not pay for the ladies who marked ailments in the survey”.
“We organize campaigns to encourage women to take preventative tests. We send out invitations, pay for advertising, convince factory workers to get tested, we even ask priests to persuade from the pulpit. And then this?” she said.
“I hope that the Fund chairman understands what he’s done … and revoke the decision.”
One unnamed oncologist from Wroclaw told the Gazeta Wyborcza that the Health Fund was cutting costs. This limited access to profilaxis combined with fewer specialist contracts leads him to suspect that doctors will be forced to cover the cost of necessary testing, which will act as a deterrent and degenerate the level of health care in Poland.
By Victoria Ziarkowski
Freelance Writer
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