The Mário Penna Institute will receive R$ 5 million in funding from the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais (ALMG), resulting from the State’s agreement with Vale to repair damages resulting from the rupture of the Brumadinho dam. The announcement was made on the afternoon of Friday, August 13, at a ceremony in the plenary, under the command of the President of the House, Deputy Agostinho Patrus.
The CEO of Instituto Mário Penna, Marco Antônio Viana Leite, was present at the event and, during his speech, highlighted the importance of this resource. “We are a philanthropic institution and we need donations to serve our patients with quality and in a humane way. More than 260 thousand people visit our institution each year, coming from all corners of Minas Gerais. We serve more than 600 municipalities that refer their residents for cancer treatment at the Institute, including the cities affected by the Brumadinho disaster.
It is important to highlight that, after the dam collapsed, analyzes point to an increase in the records of cancer patients in these locations as a result of exposure to water contaminated by heavy metals. Therefore, this resource will be of great value at this time for the purchase of medicines and to provide improvements in patient care”.
Classified by the Ministry of Health as a High Complexity Oncology Care Center (CACON), in 2020 the Mário Penna Institute also carried out 272 thousand radiotherapy applications, 34 thousand chemotherapy sessions, 55 bone marrow transplants and almost 11 thousand surgeries. In addition, it is at the forefront in the fight against Covid-19 and, for this, infirmary beds and other new ICU beds were created, aimed at treating patients with the disease.
The donation – The donation made by ALMG totals R$ 84.5 million and covers social assistance programs, health institutions and support for the production process of the vaccine against Covid-19. In addition to the CEO of Instituto Mário Penna, Marco Antônio Viana Leite, representatives of other benefited entities also attended the ceremony such as the dean of UFMG, professor Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida, representatives of the Rede Cuidar Program, the Bolsa Reciclagem Program, of the Hospital da Baleia and the Intersectorial Committee for Monitoring and Monitoring the State Policy for the Homeless Population (PopRua-MG).