Eva-Maria Strömsholm, Co-founder and Vice Chair, Gynecological Cancer Patients in Finland Patient Representative, Cancer Patient, Patient Advocate Nurse,Teacher, MSc in Developmental Psychology, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“It has been amazing (but hot) days in Brussels. Yesterday at a meeting discussion at the European Committee of the Regions. The theme was ‘The role of regions in safeguarding equitable cancer care’.
During my speaking turn, I emphasized the importance of collaboration between patient organizations and politicians at the regional and local levels in all EU member states, so that both can better understand each other and work together to improve the care pathway for patients.
Throughout the meeting, Members of the European Parliament and others highlighted that different regions within a country have significant responsibility for ensuring that healthcare functions effectively.
It was also pointed out that member states should receive sufficient resources from the EU to enable regions to carry out this work. Very interesting discussions and new perspectives. It was also emphasized that regions now need to work more on prevention within cancer care, and as was stated: ‘we have to put an effort on HPV vaccination’.
Another challenge we heard about was inequality in care within different countries. I have been saying this for a long time, and now the same message is being heard in the EU as well: your postcode can not determine what kind of care you receive, when you receive it, or whether you receive the best possible care at all.
Today it was an intensive and once again so interesting conference organized by Cancer Patients Europe – CPE with round table discussions.”
Other articles featuring Eva-Maria Strömsholm on OncoDaily.
