At first the only radiation specialist qualified for radiation therapy took a lengthy medical leave, and next the colleagues from Ljubljana who twice a week helped in Maribor revoked their cooperation. They will complete the treatments which are already in progress, but won't take any more patients.
There are two radiotherapy devices in Maribor, purchased for the amount of € 5 mil. They were used on only 27 patients in two years, while at least 2,000 patients could have avoided the wearing travel to Ljubljana, were they used to their full capacity.
And it gets even worse: although the devices were not used, their maintenance cost the hospital € 1,5 million. When investing € 35 mil. into construction of the Maribor oncology the fact that the building with expensive equipment will be of no use to patients without physicians. The former manager kept insisting that radiation treatment in Maribor would be performed.
"We said the radiation treatment in Maribor will start in April; for now, that's the firm decision on which I insist as the manager, the rest is in the hands of the medical professionals," the then manager Gregor Pivec had explained at the time. But it didn't happen in April, nor in summer; only in November of this year they started with few patients, and with the help of colleagues from Ljubljana.
"The weekly plan is: twice a week a team consisting of a doctor, i.e. oncology radiation therapist, and an expert in medical physics," Nataša Hrovatič, the oncology radiation therapist, last month explained.
But the plan soon failed, even before it was fully implemented. The work was based on a single radiation therapist who recently took a lengthy medical leave. "It happened last week, and because of that we will gradually have to stop, unless we find a replacement," Janez Lencl, head of the Centre for public relation and marketing, explained.
Thus, the patients will again have to travel the 270 kilometre distance to Ljubljana and back. The patients' Right Representative condemns such situation. "They should have considered earlier which personnel would do the work. It is a pity that such a substantial investment was made, but brings no benefit to patients," Vlasta Cafnik, Patients' Right Representative, complained.
