Fertility preservation programme Universal healthcare for all

THE Balearic Health authorities will set up information and assistance points on each island to guarantee universal healthcare access for poverty­stricken or unregistered residents.

Staff at the ‘Puntos de Orientación y Acceso a la Asistencia Sanitaria’ (orientation and access points for healthcare assistance, or POAAS) will help users with all the necessary paperwork and procedures to ac­ cess the public service.

“The POAAS will speed up and facilitate the process for users who are in an irregular and vulnerable administrative situation or lack sufficient financial resources to access the public health service,” stated a spokesperson for the department. The assistance will provide users with universal access to medical staff and medication for an initial 12 months extendable to two years, during which time they are obliged to request and obtain a TSI personal healthcare card. The service is not available to users holding a European Health Insurance Card or benefiting from any agreement between Spain and their country of origin.

Neither can they ‘export’ the right to healthcare cover from their home country to the Balearics or have sufficient means to pay for private or public healthcare.

The aim of this measure is to prevent people who can afford treatment from taking advantage of the system.

The admission departments of all health centres and hospitals in the Balearic Islands have reportedly been informed that they must not present a bill to users who declare that they have insufficient means to pay for the service and must instead register them in the system and request an appointment with the POASS.

Salut spokespeople also insisted on the importance of users being correctly registered to avoid problems with treatments or medication and to enable healthcare professionals to make a better diagnosis according to the patient’s medical history.

The Mallorca office will be located at number 16 on Joan Munar street in Palma.

Betty Henderson

MALLORCA’S Hospital Universitari Son Llatzer’s launched a pioneering programme to preserve ovarian tissue and safeguard the fertility of young female cancer patients on Friday, March 24.

Cancer treatments can be very aggressive, damaging women’s reproductive system, making it difficult or impossible for them to conceive a child. Women who receive cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy sometimes experience damage to the ovaries or even infertility.

In many cases, these young women are not yet ready to start a family, but preserving their fertility gives them the option to become pregnant in the future

Son Llàtzer University Hospital’s programme aims to preserve the fertility of young women who are about to undergo cancer treatment. The scheme will identify candidates for the pro­ cedure and evaluate their situation within 72 hours. If the candidate is considered suitable, a portion of the ovarian tissue will be extracted through minimally invasive surgery. Ovarian tissue will then be stored in a blood and tissue bank until the woman has finished treatment.

The hospital has become the first in the Balearic Islands to offer the treatment, and experts believe it could benefit up to eight women per year.