In the Unified Health System (SUS), 8,348 people are waiting to undergo hip arthroplasty surgery, the same type of procedure carried out by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) at the Sírio-Libanês Hospital, part of the private health network, in Brasília , this Friday, 29.
Surgical intervention is the most extreme treatment for severe cases of hip osteoarthritis. Over time, the cartilage between the femur and the hip bone wears out and causes the patient a lot of pain. In arthroplasty, a prosthesis is placed in place, which can be made of metal or ceramic. Although the surgery is complex, the risk is low, according to experts.
As the SUS is managed in a decentralized manner, it is the States that manage the waiting period for surgeries and procedures, classifying patients according to the urgency and severity of the condition. Starting in April this year, they presented to the Ministry of Health how many people were waiting in line for each type of surgery, because of a plan the ministry has to speed up waiting lists.
According to data declared to the National Queue Reduction Program, 43% of the 8,348 people waiting for surgery for hip osteoarthritis are in Rio Grande do Sul. The State has 3,684 people in the queue. The report questioned the State Health Department, which responded that the department “does not regulate surgeries, but the first specialized consultation”. “The insertion is only for recording the hospital’s internal queue”, he said, in a note.
After Rio Grande do Sul, the biggest queue is in Goiás, with 2,520 patients – 30.1% of the national number. The queues in the two States, together, have 6,204 patients or, in percentages, 73.1% of the SUS queue.
There are six different types of arthroplasties in the SUS: total, partial, cemented (name given because of the type of prosthesis), uncemented or hybrid, revision or reconstruction and unconventional. What the president does is total: he will exchange a piece of the femur for a prosthesis.
Amazonas, Distrito Federal, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Roraima, Santa Catarina and Sergipe declared to the Ministry of Health that they have no people in line to undergo hip arthroplasty.
On Tuesday, the 26th, during the live “Conversa com o Presidente”, Lula said that people would not see him with a walker. Using the device is one of the stages of recovery. “You won’t see me with a walker or a crutch, you’ll always see me looking pretty, as if I hadn’t even had surgery, but I’ll have to be a little careful”, said the PT member.
The statement was considered ableist, because the president associated the idea of beauty with not using a walker or crutches. Ivan Baron, influencer and person with a disability who walked the ramp alongside Lula on January 1st, criticized the speech. “It’s clear that he didn’t speak badly, but at the same time we cannot let this ableist error go unnoticed,” he said.
Senator Mara Gabrilli (PSD-SP) also reprimanded the president. To Coluna do Estadão, the parliamentarian lamented the PT member’s “ableist speech” and said that “it is past time for the president to study more about the universe of disabilities”.
Estadão
