While oncology patients are fighting for their life, it seems as if the authorities only care about the amount of money, because there is money for everything, except for those who die on waiting lists. They sent an initiative to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) Parliament for an amendment to the Budget Rebalancing for 2023 in order to allocate necessary funds for the treatment of the most serious diseases. With a warning that otherwise, they will organize protests.
The number of patients is increasing every day
Are oncology patients equal citizens? The life they live, full of uncertainty, is further complicated by the impossibility of obtaining medicine. They are expensive, they don’t have state support… Jadranka Prljic has been fighting breast cancer for more than 20 years.
“I got sick 21 years ago and was treated and went for regular check-ups and a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with another cancer on the second breast and they immediately suggested removing my breast like the first one. It’s as if this country wants us to be gone, that we don’t exist as oncology patients, but if we’re not there, others will come because a lot of young women get sick,” said Jadranka Prljic.
Therapy up to 6,000 BAM per month
According to the knowledge of cancer patients of various indications, it was determined that 1,590 people are in need of treatment.
“A total of 842 patients with the date of July 31th need urgent treatment, and these are metastatic diseases of various indications – melanoma, lung, prostate cancer… That figure is much higher today, which means that we have 1,000 people who need treatment, they are on the waiting list, and that is unacceptable,“ said Sead Sefic, president of the Prostate Cancer Association of the FBiH.
The representative of the Association of Melanoma Patients in FBiH announced protests in front of the Parliament which will be held on September 24th. And it is not the first time that they demand the right to life on the street. The monthly therapy amounts to up to 6,000 BAM, meanwhile, the association says – patients who are on the verge of life, every day through groups on social networks – ask for medicine as a gift, N1 reports.
E.Dz.
