The Basque House also approved a proposal to promote a breast milk Bank for babies and prematures.
CARMEN BARREIRO – El Correo 18.04.08
Yesterday, the Parliament adopted two new motions in the Health sector. The political groups present at the House urged the Basque Government to seek the authorization for the rare pathologies service from Cruces Hospital to work as a unit of reference of the specialty, plus creating a Bank of milk in a maximum period of three months for babies and prematures. The first proposal went forward with the positive votes of all parties, except of the EHAK group, although the debate prior to its adoption was not without controversy
The Health Minister Gabriel Inclán appeared yesterday in the Committee at the request of the PP to report on the situation of metabolic diseases in Euskadi, as well as about the previsions of their treatment and diagnosis on the public network, speech that did not Socialists and Populars. The head of the Department of Health maintained during his speech that Cruces Hospital’s Paediatric Service “already is recognized as a unit” understanding that ‘not only rare diseases are diagnosed, but treated’. In this sense, Inclán pointed out that the Ministry he runs invests more than one million euros per year in the research research for this type of pathology.
However, both the Popular’s and Socialist’s spokesmen reproached the Advisor that the service is exclusively limited to the Pediatric field and demanded a “comprehensive treatment” for all patients who have inbornmetabolic disorders, disease characterized by the lack or alteration of a protein that causes failures in different organs and that can seriously alter the development of the patient. As a general rule, the later it is diagnosed, worse prognosis it has. After emphasizing «the proper function of the service» Inclán insisted that in the unity of the v izcinian hospital is serving a ‘heterogeneous group’ in a ‘multidisciplinary’ manner.
In any case, a little more than one month ago, pediatrician Pablo Sanjurjo, one of most renowned physicians in the specialty and Queen Sofia 2002 Award for his career, denounced that Cruces stood “underused” from is ‘at least three years’ a powerful machine of metabolic diseases. As pointed out by the prestigious doctor, the vizcainan health centre is losing competitiveness by ‘lack of materials and services provided by hospitals in Santiago de Compostela, Murcia and Catalonia’. In fact, specialists claim the implantation of test in hospitals for the detection of a greater number of diseases, request also made yesterday by the popular parliamentary, Juana Iturmendi. Currently, the pediatricians of Cruces treat a total of 125 children, two out of ten from autonomous community.
In the case of the creation of a Bank of milk in the Basque public network, the position of the different political groups was unanimous. All supported the initiative put forward by the Socialists understanding that this is a service that will benefit immature babies and with low weight whose mothers are unable to feed them.
