Adnkronos Rome, May 15 (Adnkronos Salute) – "The effort today must be directed above all at ensuring greater equity in access to services, so that a patient no longer has to move from his or her own region to receive adequate care for his or her illness. Yet, as your study also shows, there are still Regions that are seriously behind in implementing the oncology network, the model par excellence of patient care, allowing continuity of care, hospital-territory integration, appropriateness and equity.
Delays and disparities that we are struggling to accept today". This was stated by the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, in his speech today at the presentation in the Chamber of Deputies of the 17th Report on the healthcare conditions of cancer patients promoted by Favo (Italian Federation of Volunteer Associations in Oncology).
"There are several food for thought that come from the study," the minister commented. "I would like to focus on some of the innovations that have occurred this year, which have marked important changes in the world of oncology. And in this regard, I would like to thank Favo for having adequately valorized them in the report. The provision of the 2025 Budget Law that recognizes the participation of patient associations in decision-making processes in health matters has gone a bit under the radar," Schillaci recalled. "For the first time, a law recognizes the strategic role of associations that, thanks to direct knowledge of patients' experiences and the critical issues encountered during the course of the disease, can make a decisive contribution to improving models and making truly informed decisions. The Ministry of Health and Aifa are working on the regulations to govern the criteria for involving associations in decision-making processes."
"Thanks to the numerous measures adopted in the last year, in particular in the Budget Law, we can say that we are even more determined to win the difficult battle against cancer - added Schillaci - With this aim we have introduced the institution of the single national Registry of Breast Units: it is an excellence of Italy that we want to enhance, standardize and make present throughout the national territory; we have allocated resources for the Tumor Registry, in the belief that only what can be measured can then be improved, and we have refinanced the activities of the Network for experimental screening of lung cancer, one of the most widespread and which still has a high mortality rate, and the Fund for Next-Generation Sequencing tests".