Gandia hospital to get radiotherapy unit
Cancer patients currently have to travel to Valencia city or Alzira
GANDIA hospital will at last be getting a radiotherapy unit, meaning cancer patients in La Safor will no longer have to travel huge distances every day to get life-saving treatment.
Hopes were high ahead of the new hospital's opening in April 2015 that radiotherapy would be part of the services provided, so patients would not have to make daily trips to Valencia's Hospital Clínico – over 90 kilometres away and typically involving a train journey and metro or taxi trip.
Those who were able to persuade their doctors to give them a referral to La Ribera hospital in Alzira had shorter journeys, but often late at night, every day, with poor parking facilities and a round trip of about 60 kilometres by car, making the process exhausting for people already tired out by the treatment.
When the Francesc de Borja hospital moved to its current site, near La Vital shopping centre and the Bellreguard roundabout, it turned
out radiotherapy had been omitted from the list.
Just a few months ago, a petition raised across the district calling for radiotherapy facilities at Gandia hospital netted around 10,200 signatures.
But this is set to change within about a year and a half, according to the regional secretary for healthcare technology and efficiency, Concha Andrés.
During a recent meeting at Gandia town hall, she said a 'bunker-type building' was about to go up on one of the empty gravelled areas seen from corridor windows throughout the complex.
Work will start in September, meaning the new department will be ready for use by around August 2023.
The unit itself will cost around €1 million to construct, but only one radiotherapy machine will be installed – at a cost of €2.5m.
That said, the entire Valencia region currently only has 12 linear accelerator machines, which are used to administer radiotherapy treatment.
EU funds will be used for the unit and its equipment, and also to buy two MRI machines, one of which will replace the existing older device in the radiology department.
At present, most patients requiring an MRI are outsourced to the private Ascires clinic on the Bellreguard road, and it can take two to three months for those considered 'non-urgent' to be analysed and the results sent to consultants at the hospital.