● The main seaside resort of the Maule Region was the site of a medical operation that took place between January 18 and 21 and benefited pediatric patients whose pathology could be complicated if they were not operated on.
● The MATER Children's Renal Corporation together with the Chilean Society of Pediatric Surgery are behind this initiative that kicks off the collaborative work that both institutions will develop during this 2024 throughout the country. This operation is also supported by the Gliding Club of Vitacura and Arauco.
JANUARY, 2024 - A health operation that benefited 41 pediatric patients from 1 year 7 months to 16 years of low complexity, such as Phimosis, Cryptorchidism and Inguinal Hernias, was carried out in the city of Constitución, Maule Region, between January 18 and 21.
This initiative, the seventh developed by Corporación Renal Infantil MATERis part of the agreement recently signed with the Chilean Society of Pediatric Surgery. Chilean Society of Pediatric Surgery (SCHCP) and is the result of a collaboration that aims to reduce waiting lists for non-AUGE pathologies and collaborate so that children from all over the country have access to timely surgical treatment.
Currently, the type of diseases addressed in the operation have a resolution time that can reach three years in waiting lists and even more, due to the fact that they are not urgent. The risk is that if they are not solved in the short term, the health of the children could be further compromised.
As Dr. José Manuel Escala, pediatric urologist and founder of Corporación Renal Infantil MATER, points out: "This operation is a joint effort of many people and institutions that see with concern the long time that many children have to wait to recover their health, that is why we are proud to perform a new operation with interventions that do not take more than two hours and that are performed by a highly committed medical team".
The group of professionals was made up of children's surgeons Gloria González and Margarita Aldunate, anesthesiologists Silvana Cavallieri and Daniela Mistretta, and fellows Matilde Pedrero and Yovanca Ramírez.
Likewise, Dr. Marco Valenzuela, vice-president of the SCHCP and specialist in charge of executing the agreement with MATER, emphasized that "the work these days is intensive, there are three long days in which they can intervene up to fifteen patients per day. To date, activities such as these have had a positive impact on more than 700 children in more than 50 operations from Arica to Coyhaique".
The Hospital de Constitución was the venue for this activity and its director, Anette Rodríguez Contreras, said that "we are very pleased with this joint work with the MATER corporation, which has been carried out for five years and has allowed us to speed up our waiting list and also to provide solutions to the population of Constitución, Chanco and Empedrado".
In addition, it is planned to carry out three operations per semester and even expand it to areas such as plastic, thoracic and neonatal surgery. On the other hand, the choice of the city to start the activities of this 2024 was mainly due to the need of attention that this locality presents since, in particular, Constitución does not have a children's surgeon so they had a long waiting list of patients with low complexity pathologies.
The activity is financed thanks to the support of different groups, among them Arauco, which through a donation will cover the cost of the medical team's stay and part of the surgical supplies. In this regard, Nelson Bustos Arancibia, Arauco's Deputy Manager of Public Affairs, emphasizes that: "We are very pleased to collaborate once again with the Hospital de Constitución and the Mater Corporation in this operation that will benefit the health and quality of life of 40 children and their families. All of us who work in Arauco and live in the area are especially grateful to the Hospital de Constitución team for their commitment, professionalism and human quality in the care they provide. Therefore, Arauco will always be present in every initiative that the hospital undertakes, as well as with our friends from Mater, with whom we also have a history of collaboration for the benefit of the children in the area".
Likewise, the Vitacura Gliding Club is in charge of the transportation of the professionals who will be in charge of the surgeries. Arturo Diez, manager of the Gliding Club and administrator of the Vitacura Municipal Aerodrome, said: "As the Gliding Club, we are very happy to be part of this alliance with the Mater Corporation, which has been projected over time, and which will directly benefit many children who can count on these medical operations to meet their health needs, and thus also reduce waiting lists. The fact that we can contribute a grain of sand by facilitating the transportation of the Corporation's team, by air, this time to Constitución, is also part of the contribution that we as a Club make to the community".
This initiative is an important contribution to reducing the dramatic figure recently released by the Ministry of Health, which showed that 44,000 people died while waiting to be treated on a waiting list in 2022. Of these 38,564 were waiting for specialty care or surgery not included in the AUGE plan.
