other cancer specialists being sought

New oncologist to start work in Maó at beginning of March

meeting. Joan Carulla Torrent and Aina Castillo talk to people affected at the hospital

Joan Carulla Torrent, a specialist in oncology and radiotherapy at the Vall d´Hebron General University Hospital in Barcelona, will lead a new team here

c.m.w..Maó

The Councillor for Health, Aina Castillo, introduced the doctor Joan Carulla Torrent at a press conference held last week, as the head of a new project for the treatment of cancer patients which will be put into operation in Menorca by IB-Salut. Joan Carulla, a specialist in oncology and radiotherapy who has been working in the Vall d´Hebron General University Hospital in Barcelona, will move to the island at the beginning of March to join the Balearic health service.

Greeted by warm applause from those present at the conference, the specialist stated that the unit to be set up in Menorca will be of "the highest quality and will be connected to the best Spanish and European centres of reference", adding that "excellence can also be achieved in small places".

Carulla said that he had been attracted by the challenge and the project, for which he has been allowed total flexibility. He added that he had made initial contact with seven colleagues with a view to forming his team on the island, in addition to two sounded out by IB-Salut. The head of the health service in Menorca, Claudio Triay, has said that no limit has been placed on the number of cancer specialists to be employed but that "as many as are necessary" would be contracted.

Waiting lists down by 8.8%

The number of patients awaiting an operation in the Verge del Toro Hospital, Maó, dropped by 8.8% during 2006. At the end of last year there were 926 people on the waiting list, compared to 1,015 twelve months earlier.

In December the average waiting time for an operation in Menorca was 57.47 days, ten days less than in 2005 and slightly below the Balearic average of 58 days, despite an increase in the number of people on the health service´s books. Some 80.4% of patients were operated on within a period of three months and nobody had had to wait more than six months.

With regard to the waiting time to see a specialist or to have tests, the average at the Maó hospital was 32.7 days, four less than the previous year. Within the twelve month period the waiting list had been reduced from 3,043 patients to 2,837, or 6.77%. In the Balearic Islands overall December´s waiting list of 27,441 patients was down by 3.5%.