Only one surgeon at Rigshospitalet currently has the right competencies to carry out 182 annual operations for pancreatic cancer, DR reported. The figure comes from a report Region Hovedstaden has just delivered to Sundhedsstyrelsen.
Sundhedsstyrelsen asked on 13 October for an explanation of how a highly specialised department at Rigshospitalet can handle pancreatic cancer operations. The request followed the hospital firing three chief physicians at the department at once, while two other surgeons stopped within a short time.
The report states that at least three specialist doctors with specific competence are required to perform pancreatic cancer operations, but that there are "fewer specialists with specific competence than normal" because of the case. To address the problem, the hospital has tested collaboration with an experienced surgeon from Odense University Hospital, is in dialogue with Aarhus University Hospital among others, and expects to hire at least one experienced specialist. The department has three doctors in training and expects two of them to gain specialist-level experience in the coming year, the region wrote.
Pernille Slebsager, patient support director at Kræftens Bekæmpelse, said: "It is strongly concerning that there is only one specialist doctor for operations for pancreatic cancer. She said patients can be safe right now, but called the situation far too vulnerable for a very serious cancer disease where patients are completely dependent on surgery. "It is crucial that Rigshospitalet both enters solid agreements on help from other hospitals, and that they get new doctors employed.
We will continue to follow the case closely," she said. Region Hovedstaden wrote in the report that it still expects to meet waiting times in the cancer area even with fewer doctors at the department. Sundhedsstyrelsen has not yet commented on the report.