The Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Catalina Garciahas highlighted the commitment of the current Andalusian Government to the Alto Guadalquivir Hospital in Andújar, “through important healthcare improvementsand through the investment in equipment advanced to offer the highest quality of care to users that the Andalusian Health Service has provided”.
Thus, the counselor, who visited the hospital accompanied by the mayor of Andújar, Francisco Carmona, the delegate of the Government of the Junta de Andalucía in Jaén, Jesús Estrella, the territorial delegate of Health and Consumer Affairs, Elena González, and the managers of the center and the Jaén University Hospital, Lucrecia Sánchez and Javier Vadillo respectively, have referred to the new functional unit for type 1 diabetes mellitus, from which approximately 180 patients in the area will benefit.
This assistance is being carried out by the Endocrinology and Nutrition Clinical Management Unit of the Jaén University Hospital, which provides both doctors and nurses thanks to the creation of a Functional Unit together with the Alto Guadalquivir Hospital of Andújar, “as initial support to the Nursing staff of the center, to take charge of the diabetes education tasks that are carried out with the patients.
For Catalina García, “this new unit, which has been implemented in each of the hospitals in the province, specifically herein Andújar, responds to a historic demand of the residents of the region, who no longer have to travel to be treated and who have the best assistance in their reference center.
García, who stressed that “this initiative is making it easier for users to choose their outpatient follow-up at their nearest hospital,” explained that care in regional hospitals is part of the Comprehensive Diabetes Plan of Andalusia (PIDMA) carried out by the Andalusian Health Service, and has valued “the great work being carried out by the Endocrinology and Nutrition Service of the Jaén University Hospital, directed by María José Martínez”.
In this sense, he highlighted “what a increase in the portfolio of Endocrinology and Nutrition services of level 1 and 2 hospitalsalso due to the technological development associated with the treatment of diabetes mellitus, with the implementation of ‘flash’ glucose monitoring sensors in type 1 diabetes patientswhich has had a reinforcement of the professional staff of these services”.
The counselor recalled that there are around 60,000 people who suffer from diabetes in the province of Jaén, of which 1,800 have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and around 1,700 already have the monitoring device implanted. A figure that rises to more than 40,000 people at the regional level. Thus, it has stressed that the integration of glycemic control information from these devices in the patient’s clinical history, accessible to both Primary Care teams and specialists in hospitals, is constituting a milestone for Andalusia, since it makes it possible remote monitoring.
At this point, he also referred to the project “which is pioneering in Spain” of telemonitoring for patients with diabetes who are developing Salud Responde, “which comes to offer an immediate and personalized response” to patients who use the flash glucose monitoring system. “This allows patients who have their device linked to their mobile phone to have remote monitoring and care from the Salud Responde Nursing team,” she indicated.
García has highlighted the Board’s commitment to the prevention and early detection of diabetes, as well as its complications, together with therapeutic education and the development of technologies applied to the disease, which has placed Andalusia as one of the pioneer communities in financing monitored glycemic control for type 2 patientswhich affects 15.3% of the adult population, the development of Diabetic Retinopathy Early Detection Program or the new model of prevention and care for diabetic foot which entails the networking of multidisciplinary Primary Care and hospital teams.
New mammograph
The Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs has also visited the new mammograph that the Alto Guadalquivir Hospital already has, to which 215,000 euros have been allocated. Catalina García has outlined “the importance of having this latest technology equipment, which incorporates tomosynthesis, taking into account that, in the last two years, in this center an average of more than 5,400 studies and interventions have been carried out. mammography”.
“Among these studies, the breast screening, as part of the early detection program of Andalusia, and the fact that during the second quarter of 2023 we have increased the target populationwith the incorporation of two new age groups, 70 and 71 years old, which will be five, 47, 48 and 49 in the coming monthshas meant that the number of diagnostic tests of this type has increased at the Andújar Hospital,” he pointed out.
Catalina García has stressed, in this sense, that to carry out these studies the Alto Guadalquivir Hospital had, until now, mammography equipment that was close to 15 years old “and practically technically obsolete”, whose technology , older, did not have the possibility of performing tomosynthesis, so having the new mammograph “represents a leap in technological quality that patients will notice.”
Totalhas indicated, A total of 37 state-of-the-art mammography machines have been incorporated into the public health system, of which four have been installed in health centers where they did not exist before, with an investment of 6.5 million euros, which has made possible 45,500 additional studies per year. Andalusia currently has 72 mammography machines: 28 fixed ones for screening in Primary Care, 37 hospital mammography machines and seven Mobile Mammography Units.
Breast tomosynthesis, also known as three-dimensional mammography or DBT, is an advanced imaging technique that uses low-dose x-rays and computer reconstructions to create three-dimensional images of the breasts. This technique improves early detection and diagnosis of breast diseases and, unlike mammography two-dimensional conventionalwhich may have limitations, tomosynthesis capture images from different angles around the breast, reducing tissue overlap and facilitates the detection of abnormalities.
Every year around 4,900 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in Andalusia, the most common tumor in women in all Western countries. Early detection through mammograms is key to improving the prognosis of the disease and applying less aggressive treatments to affected women, thanks to a comprehensive and individualized approach by the professional teams that treat this disease.
Finally, García recalled the Government of Andalusia’s commitment to improving the health infrastructure and equipment of the municipality of Andújar, which has resulted in a total investment that exceeds 10 million euros, of which eight million have been allocated to actions in the hospital itself.