‘I think about giving up’, says patient disconnected from AC Camargo hospital

Luciana Magri, 48, a patient at the AC Camargo hospital, in São Paulo, since 2007, has not yet been able to assimilate the discharge notice she received from the institution, by email, on July 15. In the message, she is instructed to look for the UBS (basic health unit) close to her home to monitor her condition, a neuroendocrine tumor with metastasis in the lung, liver and pancreas.

“I think about giving up,” he says.

Magri is one of the 1,500 people who were treated by the SUS at the hospital considered a reference in cancer treatment and who have been laid off since the beginning of the year. “The patient was discharged from the medical team of AC Camargo Cancer Center and the criteria are in accordance with the institutional protocol of each specialty, drawn up from medical and scientific criteria”, says the entity.

Without understanding the hospital’s position — the email was forwarded to her before the Sheet to report this Monday (15) that AC Camargo would end the services via SUS—, Magri talked to her lawyer and obtained an injunction. In the decision, judge Lúcia Caninéo Campanhã, from the 6th^The Civil Court, points out the need for medical treatment and the continuous use of controlled drugs, as well as the need to explain the discharge, and determines the service under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 1,000.

“It was very bad, I didn’t know the reason for being disconnected. At first, I thought it was a mistake. I didn’t receive any other email, no phone call explaining the situation. I have a version of last year of my chart, which served as basis for the injunction, and I requested the updated version because I believed I would find the answer in it, but I still haven’t received it” says Magri.

“When I read the news about SUS in the press, I felt a certain relief because I understood what was happening”, completes she, who lives in Praia Grande and uses the city’s transport service for care in the capital.

This Thursday (18), the state government of São Paulo announced that it will provide complementary funding to AC Camargo so that the entity continues to serve SUS patients for years to come. Governor Rodrigo Garcia (PSDB), however, did not detail the amounts that will be transferred and said only that the funds will be the subject of future meetings.

Because of the pain and the effects of his tumor, a rare type, Magri uses clonazepam and methadone, among other medicines. These are drugs that can only be obtained by means of a special prescription, after medical consultation, and she was afraid of losing access to them as well.

“It is a medication that cannot be stopped overnight and since they cut me I have not had access to chemotherapy”, he says.

She says that last Wednesday (17) she managed to be seen at the hospital presenting the injunction and that, with the document, she scheduled the next consultations, scheduled for September and October.

“I would like them to go back and continue the care because, for those who have cancer, the bond and trust in the team are very important. Being in palliative care, it is a huge impact to think about starting to be cared for in another place.”

In response, the hospital explains that palliative care is not considered highly complex care and that the decision should not mean the end of patient care.

“When the patient is discharged from AC Camargo, this does not mean that it is no longer necessary to maintain their health care. It means that from this moment on, care in a tertiary unit is no longer necessary. of the primary unit, that is, in the Basic Health Unit closest to your residence”, says the institution.

AC Camargo says that the approximately 1,500 patients must present themselves in person at the UBS and that the next to be discharged, considering the maintenance of care to the SUS with a focus on high complexity, will be referred by the hospital itself to the basic units. In these cases, the entity will call the UBS, sending the patient’s documentation, who must attend the post to complete the transfer.

The Praia Grande Health Department says it has not received any notification from the hospital. The folder guides the patient to go to the nearest Family Health Unit, where the necessary referrals will be made, and emphasizes that cancer treatment is the responsibility of the state government, as well as other treatments of medium and high complexity.