Ensuring adequate and safe access to treatment

The background

At the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in March, all patient entrances to UMHAT “Tsaritsa Yoanna – ISUL” were closed, leaving only the main entrance open. As a result, the children treated at the Clinic of Paediatric Clinical Haematology and Oncology have to come in with the general flow of patients and pass through the whole hospital and the people waiting outside the consulting rooms to reach the clinic and its laboratory. At the same time, by order of the hospital director, the boarding house where children and parents from outside the capital stay was also closed. A few months later, at the end of June, again by order of the hospital director, staff from the newly opened “COVID ward” were housed in this hotel. As the situation worsened, last week UMHAT “Tsaritsa Yoanna – ISUL” opened an entrance for patients with SARS-CoV-2 right next to the entrance of the clinic’s day ward. The two entrances share a common wheelchair ramp, and in practice the children with cancer risk mixing with patients with acute viral infections, which directly endangers their treatment and their lives.

One of the main missions of the Association “Children with Oncohaematological Diseases” is not only to provide psychological and emotional support, but also to fight for and guarantee access to quality treatment in line with European standards.

For this reason we submitted an official letter to the Ministry of Health setting out our position and insisting that all necessary measures be taken to protect the health and lives of the young patients and their doctors.

The treatment of childhood oncohaematological diseases must be a priority for every civilised country. In an epidemic of infectious disease, children with cancer are one of the most vulnerable groups. For them, contact with the infection can be deadly!

In this connection, we sent a letter to the Ministry of Health calling for the problem to be resolved IMMEDIATELY and for a green corridor to be provided for the treatment, hospital stays and follow-up of children with oncohaematological diseases who are patients of the Clinic of Paediatric Clinical Haematology and Oncology at UMHAT “Tsaritsa Yoanna – ISUL”