Many overseas patient transfers are a waste of state money, according to obstetrician Jose Antonio Zeto.
Doctor Zeto said in 2013, the government spent US$2 million on transferring patients abroad for treatment at Sangla-Bali and Sutomo-Surabay hospitals in Indonesia.
The condition of many patients transferred overseas for treatment worsened when they returned to Timor-Leste, with 70 per cent dying a month after returning, he said.
According to law, the government is obligated to pay attention to its people but it should be balanced, he said, to ensure the patients sent abroad returned home well and lived for a further five years at least.
He acknowledged that the equipment in National Hospital Guido Valadares (HNGV) was still insufficient but said Timorese doctors wereable to provide healthcare.
“It costs a lot of money to undertake treatment abroad, because one patient can pay US$ 100 a night and pay more for meals, medicine, doctors and so on,” he said.
HNGV Clinic Director Aniceto Barreto said the patients who were transferred abroad needed to meet criteria set by doctors.
The patients who went to be diagnosed, he said, met the criteria because the HNGV laboratory lacked the facilities to diagnose patients with cancers and other diseases.
Dr Barreto said 50 per cent of patients who were treated abroad lived at least another five years as those of reproductive age were prioritized.
He said 60–year-old patients could meet the criteria but the hospital would not transfer them when they are in very poor condition.
Doctor Barreto said most patients who were transferred abroadhad cancers and heart problems at stage one and needed intervention.
MP Ilda Maria da Conceição said the government needed to spend more on facilities and staffing for HNGV in order to decrease the transfer rate of patients abroad.
“There should be a good healthcare system for the patients because two people died of breast cancer and they were just left.Suddenly the dead bodies were opened before the Deputy Minister of Health and worms came out. This made people unhappy,” MP da Conceicao said.
