Carmen Uscatu, Founding Member, President at Give Life NGO, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Some things cannot be measured. The light in a child’s eyes. The relief on a parent’s face. And yet every day we ask ourselves: what will it take for every child with cancer in Romania to receive the same care? What will it take for a child treated in Romania to receive the same care as a child in Western Europe? These are difficult questions. And they demand difficult conversations.
This week, at the National Pediatric Oncology Conference, I found part of the answer in the room.
Oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pain specialists, neurologists, ENT doctors, ophthalmologists, endocrinologists, and psychologists from Marie Curie Children’s Hospital, together with specialists from pediatric oncology centers across the country, all presenting, all thinking about the same child.
This is what conferences are for: to share results. Yes. But also fears. Honestly. With vulnerability. The most useful presentations were the ones that named limitations, asked hard questions, and looked for answers together. Because none of us has all the answers alone. But together we can find better ones.
There is real progress to acknowledge: the national registry has registered more patients than ever in the last two years, and survival trends are moving in the right direction. We wait for the official data to confirm. But the direction is clear.
I also discovered initiatives I wasn’t aware of, including work on legislation that affects every child with cancer in this country. Legislation that needs all of us at the table: children and their parents, oncology departments fragmented across the country, NGOs, authorities, and politicians.
How many politicians have actually been invited to see what pediatric oncology in Romania faces every day?
Romania’s childhood cancer survival rate is still 11% below the European average. That gap doesn’t close alone. And it doesn’t close fast enough when we each walk our own road.
If we don’t talk openly about what isn’t working yet, who will?
Thank you to the Romanian Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and to every presenter who came with honesty, who showed what works and had the courage to ask how to improve what doesn’t. This is a conference worth having. Every year.
With evidence of change, difficult conversations, and the kind of debates that make us grow.
To everyone: what can I do better today that gives the child in front of me a better chance? And how do we make care not only better but more efficient, so that the resources we have go as far as possible?
Full disclosure: most of the names above are colleagues from Marie Curie Children’s Hospital, with two very welcome exception. Yes, we took photos. Yes, most of us are from Marie Curie. No, we are not sorry.”
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