MPs yesterday demanded action against Health Ministry officials for failing to provide appropriate care to cancer patients.
They voted unanimously in favour of an urgent proposal presented by five MPs which also demanded more care for cancer patients while developing existing facilities.
Several MPs broke down in tears as they spoke on the proposal, saying some of the cases they came across were heart-breaking.
Ebrahim Al Nefaei said it was sad that people had to take to social media to highlight such cases.
“It is clear these are desperate as they don’t receive proper treatment here and want treatment abroad,” he added.
“I personally visited the tumours unit at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) along with ministry officials and saw the conditions there,” he said, adding that if it was a question of funding the ministry can seek aid from Zakat House.
Parliament’s public utilities and environment affairs committee chairman Hamad Al Kooheji said the tumours unit was the worst facility he has ever seen in his life as he flipped photos on his iPad.
“The IV is covered with flies, the metal stand with green bacteria and the place is dirty and unclean,” he claimed.
“There was one case of a woman who had hired a nurse from a private hospital for BD400 per month to take care of her son at the unit.
“Ministers and MPs and their families get VIP air tickets and shopping money to go for check-ups and treatment in Germany at the expense of the overseas treatment committee while the poor have to suffer in queue for a budget or their turn, if they make it alive.
“The request to question the Health Minister last year was dropped but this time we have 27 signatures as we believe she can’t continue in that seat or stay in that ministry.”
Zainab Abdulamir cited the case of a seven-year-old Bahraini boy undergoing treatment at SMC.
“He has moved from level three to four and it is clear that the tube used is bigger than him because the ministry didn’t buy his size and this is a crime,” she said.
“There is also a Bahraini in her 20s, who lost parts of her body, allegedly due to negligence and unnecessary waiting at the unit.”
Woman and child committee chairwoman Fatima Al Qatari said cancer accounted for 15.5 per cent of deaths in Bahrain in 2017.
“There were 3,340 patients in Bahrain until last year with an average 18,288 visits to the unit and there is a need to assess all cases through an independent committee to ensure that they get treated rather than made to wait.”
Parliament chairwoman Fouzia Zainal urged MPs not to get carried away by emotion.
Parliament and Shura Council Affairs Minister Ghanim Al Buainain said the overseas treatment committee worked independently of the minister.
The GDN reported in July last year that parents of the seven-year-old Bahraini boy battling a rare type of terminal cancer had pleaded for help in sending him abroad for treatment, which according to his doctors was his only hope.
Talal Mahmood at the time was in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at SMC after suffering from severe toxicity that is reported in less than 10 per cent of people with lymphoma cancer.
According to his family, SMC doctors told them that Talal was the first case of its kind found in Bahrain and advised them on overseas treatment, which is estimated to cost over BD10,000.
Talal’s medical report, a copy of which was obtained by the GDN, stated that he has stage four anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a rare type of cancer that affects infection-fighting cells of the immune system, and acute encephalomyelitis, an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord due to acute viral infection.
mohammed@gdn.com.bh
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