The works for the largest investment in Unicamp's health sector in the last 30 years are in the final phase of construction. The Institute of Otorhinolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery (IOU) – entirely built with resources donated by the Public Ministry of Labor, as a result of compensation for collective moral damage from the public civil action in the Shell/Basf de Paulínia case – will be inaugurated later this year and will provide specialized care to the population, promoting restructuring and expansion of the Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Division of the Hospital de Clínicas da Unicamp, which has been serving the population for more than five decades. The Institute's proposal is to work in an integrated manner with health agents in the state network. Coordinated by the professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) Dr. Agrício Crespo, the project is unique in academia and will be aimed at training specialists and continuing education, in addition to developing research and disseminating new knowledge.
During a visit to the works, the rector Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles and the general coordinator of Unicamp, Maria Luiza Moretti, visited the facilities and spoke with potential investors, in a meeting promoted by the president of the group of Business Leaders (Lide) of Campinas, Silvia Quirós . During the visit, all Covid-19 prevention protocols were strictly followed, with distancing and the use of masks.
"For the University to do what it needs to do, which is to serve society, we need collaborative actions like this”, said the rector. “We have examples in various areas of Unicamp of experiences that spread across the country, resulting from the training we give people. We need collaboration for this project to take off”, pointed out the rector, who also thanked the Public Ministry for its commitment, in the person of judge Maria Inês Corrêa de Cerqueira César Targa, who also participated in the meeting.
"The Institute was born with environmental, social responsibility and creative governance. We count on the engagement of the business community”, said professor Agrício Crespo. “Our responsibility is immense”, reinforced the doctor. According to Crespo, the IOU is also innovative in its management and maintenance. All funds must be external and will not come from Unicamp's budget. “We aim to connect science to health,” says Crespo.
The national reference hospital will provide care to the population of the Unified Health System (SUS), carry out diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of head and neck cancer, deafness, balance disorders, voice and swallowing disorders, upper respiratory tract, treatment of tracheostomized children and head and neck cancer, and will carry out exclusive exams in the public network. Its annual service capacity will be 119.340 medical consultations, 4.320 surgeries of varying sizes and 88.668 diagnostic support exams.
Innovation in Health
On 11 thousand square meters of land, located next to the HC, the Institute's facilities have 7 thousand square meters that house 30 medical offices, ten specialized procedure rooms, four operating rooms, 18 training stations, three dental offices, three auditoriums, 15 hospitalization rooms, computed tomography and genetics laboratories, diagnostics and rehabilitation of deafness and balance, sleep disorders and virtual surgery. The multidisciplinary medical team is made up of the University’s clinical and academic staff.
"We are making history and breaking paradigms”, said the general director of the Campinas Health Area Foundation (Fascamp), Dr. Gerson Laurito. “We will look for alternatives that can make maintenance viable. The basic core is service to the SUS, but the System's funds do not cover the real costs. We intend to seek resources that are not public. It will be a mixed management, like several public institutions”, says Laurito. “We need society’s collaboration to make the institute work. The moment in health is extremely important”, concludes the director of Fascamp, which manages institutions such as the AME in Amparo and the Hospital Regional de Piracicaba.
At the first meeting of businesspeople promoted by the president of Lide Campinas, Silvia Quirós, to present the IOU, held in March, the companies EMS Farmacêutica and Biomega Medicina Diagnóstica committed to supporting the institute with donation funds. “Biomega will set up the clinical analysis laboratory”, said Silvia. “Lide is a networking platform, with eight units in Brazil and 16 around the world, whose aim is to generate relationships that strengthen the public and private. We are catalysts for meetings that make incredible projects like this possible.”
Largest compensation agreement
According to judge Maria Inês Corrêa de Cerqueira César Targa, responsible for allocating the funds from the public civil action to projects linked to Health, the Shell/Basf case resulted in the largest compensation agreement in the country's history, signed by the Labor Court in 2013. public civil action was proposed by the Public Ministry in 2007. The Anglo-Dutch multinational Shell - associated with the German Basf, in Paulínia - paid R$ 200 million for collective moral damage, recognizing the effects of soil and groundwater contamination caused by the activity industrial. As a way of repairing the damage caused to society, the money was allocated to research and medical entities.
“I am very excited to see the Institute ready. It is a source of pride for the entire community that is serious and believes that it can do things better. Everything I can do for this entity, I will do”, said the judge last Friday (18/06), during the visit to the IOU works. She recalled the period in which the action was being processed, when many attended the hearings with clear signs of the chemical effects. “I followed the deaths of around 60 people.” Compensation was granted to around 1.100 employees and contractors.
