The pathology laboratory of the La Paz hospital in Madrid, which David Handisson has directed since 2014, has collapsed: it has a total of 11,600 biopsies pending analysis, many of them to predict cancer or a tumor, according to union sources from the hospital itself.
Each patient may have multiple biopsy samples to test. The paradox is that the specialty consultations of the doctors who have requested these tests either partially receive the results of some patients or the results of the entire batch have not been directly notified.
This department, which has 7 services, analyzes tissue samples (biopsies and surgical specimens), as well as cytologies and autopsies to provide diagnostic information on cancers, tumors and other serious diseases.
After the results offered by the laboratory, the doctors make the diagnosis of the disease and can guide the patients on the steps to follow.
Union sources explain to La Vanguardia that "in each cardboard tray on the tables there are more than 50 samples." "Others - they add - are stored in other places".
Technicians from the laboratory itself explain anonymously that "we are more than a month late. Today is August 10 and the biopsies for July 7 are being cut off."
To which they add: "Not everything is cancer... You have to cut the biopsies and they are analyzed under a microscope to find out the pathology they have. The first step is to know if it is cancer or not. And then, the corresponding tests are done to know what type of cancer it is and that the clinicians treat it".
This department, the same union sources point out, "receive complaints from doctors requesting the results because there have been several cases in which patients go to the consultations and the results are not there, they have even had to call them up to 2 or 3 times a not being able to give them the diagnosis".
The pathological anatomy department of La Paz has 29 senior technicians and this summer 8 have been hired from the job market to cover sick leave and vacations, but the problem is that they have to be trained, which delays the work.
According to the department itself on the La Paz Hospital website, "the response time for a conventional biopsy is between 3 and 7 days and for conventional surgical ones between 7 and 15 days; while for complex surgical ones it is when the established deadlines are lengthened and can range between 10 and 30 days".
The patient Blanca Sellés, a former nurse retired due to cancer, has viralized these days on social networks a letter that she has sent to the La Paz patient care department to claim the results of her tests. She complains that she has been waiting six weeks for the forecast of 8 samples, when the results should be ready between 7 and 15 days.
The technicians of said department are even surprised that "only one patient has denounced". The problem is that many patients do not know how to proceed in these cases and wait for their specialist doctor to offer them a diagnosis.
