Oncology should focus on the quality of treatment

"The most important thing now is to implement the National Cancer Network," emphasised Sławomir Gadomski, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Health during the "Oncology – prevention, diagnosis, therapy" panel during the Economic Forum.

As the Deputy Minister pointed out, the Act on National Cancer Network could be called the Act on Quality in Oncology. This is because it relates to the measures by which the health department wants to improve the quality of treatment – including the introduction of quality meters. The Ministry is clear – if centres do not adhere to the quality indicators, a corrective programme will be implemented in them, and if this does not help, they risk losing contact with the National Health Fund.

"The biggest challenge is to provide patients with access to quality oncological care," said Adam Maciejczyk, director of the Lower Silesian Oncology Centre in Wrocław, which participated in the pilot of the National Cancer Network (NCN). He pointed out that the pilot, which was a difficult process, helped gain the specific data needed to redesign oncology. The big challenge now will be to coordinate, that is, to implement the NCN as a systemic solution.

Need for prevention

Marcin Bruszewski, Director General of Direct CEE Markets at Philips Health Systems, stressed that oncology has become even more important during the pandemic, which has kept potential cancer patients at home. Now is the high time to strengthen the fight against cancer. The new European strategy and the national oncological strategy provide a signpost as to what actions should be taken to make this fight as effective as possible.

Marcin Bruszewski also emphasised that Philips, as a leader in new medical technologies, is working intensively on innovations that will help improve the detection of this disease and the management of its treatment.

Sławomir Gadomski reminded us that a lot has already changed in oncology – the key change is the National Cancer Strategy which provided new funds for the comprehensive fight against cancer. Despite this, there is still a lot of work to be done, particularly in prevention, where measures related, for example, to a greater role for primary care physicians need to be taken. The issue of vaccination against HPV (a virus that increases the risk of cervical cancer) is also related to prevention – and in this respect, Poland is the last in the EU.

As pointed out by Monika Klaus-Piskała, Director for Pharmacoeconomics and Health Policy at MSD Polska, we can benefit from the experience of other countries. It shows that reimbursement alone does not work – there is a need for a national HPV prevention programme with health education as an important element.

Sławomir Gadomski announced that the health department is already planning to reimburse 100 per cent of vaccines for one year group (not just girls) and mentioned the possibility of partial reimbursement for a much wider group. The Czech Republic, for example, allocates almost 8% of its GDP to health care . Lucie Šteklová, a medical expert at the Czech company Loono (which specialises in health education), emphasised that there is a great emphasis on health education in the Czech Republic.

Support in Brussels

As reminded by Krzysztof Jakubiak, President of the Modern Heathcare Institute, reports prepared by the institute on different types of cancer show that regardless of the disease, the barriers to optimal treatment are similar. One is low patient awareness, causing that many people are diagnosed with cancer (e.g. lung or liver cancer) too late. According to Krzysztof Jakubiak, another challenge is the organisation and quality of treatment; there is still a lack of a coordinated approach – from diagnosis, through the entire treatment process, to rehabilitation. Monika Klaus-Piskała pointed out that the financing of therapy is a challenge – the key issue is reimbursement, and in this respect, Poland is still far from the European average.

According to the deputy minister of health, funds for oncology will now be quite plentiful. Moreover, this is an area where you can see the rapid development of new technologies. Marcin Bruszewski also emphasised the importance of new technologies in treatment, stressing that they can provide doctors with access to full medical data of patients and direct them towards the treatment path that should be chosen for a given patient.

We can also count on money for oncology from Brussels, where a European plan to fight cancer has been drawn up. "After the pandemic, we will face an oncological tsunami," said Małgorzata Bogusz, member of the European Economic and Social Committee, who was a reporter for the EESC opinion on the European plan to fight cancer.