Oncologists say 1103 beds cut in 10 yrs, crisis on wards

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 8 - Italy's oncologists said Friday that some 1,103 cancer beds had been cut in the last 10 years and there was a full-blown crisis on cancer wards across the country.
    Every day in Italy, approximately 1,000 new cancer diagnoses are estimated and this number tends to increase by 1% year after year, said the president of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom) Francesco Perrone on the occasion of the opening of the 26th national congress.
    "But the growth in demand for care clashes with a critical reality: in 10 years, in fact, 1,103 public beds have been cut in the Oncology departments (in 2012 there were 5,262, reduced to 4,159 in 2022) and the number of oncologists is starting to decrease at a national level, as is that of nurses; this is the worrying picture," said Perrone. (ANSA).