Mission: to fight cancer
recently under the dome of the Verkhovna Rada ex-Minister of Health of Ukraine Zoryana Skaletska presented a draft National Strategy for Cancer Control until 2030. The main task of the strategy -reducing the incidence of cancer in Ukraine through prevention, early detection, quality treatment of cancer patients, improving the quality of life of patients and reducing mortality. For the first time in decades, cancer issues have been talked about loudly at the national level.
To be afraid or to fight?
Illness does not bring joy to anyone. Getting sick is always bad. Almost always, unless you’re a schoolboy who accidentally broke a toe, and now lie at home with your head immersed in the interesting world of a textbook on aerodynamics, dreaming of his own inventions a la Jacques Fresco. But if without jokes… It is impossible to prepare for the disease. Just when it happens, you understand - now life will be divided into "before" and "after".
Cancer is a disease that most people prefer to know nothing about, considering it a death sentence in advance, attributing to it a halo of terrible collective myths, which are in fact completely unjustified and artificially contrived. One of these is an almost textbook case: a young woman, 38 years old, during a medical examination by a gynecologist found a nodule on the breast and offered to seek professional advice from a mammologist to confirm or deny a probable diagnosis. A woman in despair, thoughts of cancer, fear of hearing the diagnosis… Refusal of a detailed medical examination of evidence-based medicine in favor of a healer who offers a tincture of mushrooms. As a result, women develop acute gastric ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding, which causes sudden death. The post-mortem examination did not reveal any cancer cells, and if she had undergone an additional examination, that would be healthy. So how many more lessons does society need at the expense of life when the dead teach the living?
What does the Ministry plan to do?
The project presented by the Ministry of Health provides for several areas:
1. Ensure primary prevention of cancer by reducing the impact of risk factors and improving public awareness by engaging in active action.
2. Facilitate early detection of cancer.
3. Ensure equal and constant access to a viable network of health care facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
4. Develop a capable network of providing high-quality, coordinated and affordable treatment of oncology in children based on a multidisciplinary approach with decent care and support for children with cancer and their families.
5. Provide rehabilitation, care and palliative care to cancer patients and support their caregivers at all levels.
6. Improve information systems for cancer registration and surveillance of cancer patients to track the dynamics and evaluate the results of cancer control measures.
7. To increase the level of professional education of doctors, paramedics and medical workers in order to increase the number and quality of human resources.
8. Facilitate research with further use of results for cancer control.
Also, a separate Strategy highlights the treatment of cancer in children. After all, 1,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in Ukraine every year.At the same time, the growth of childhood morbidity is not observed in Ukraine or around the world. The strategy will be aimed primarily at reorganizing the process of providing services to improve the quality of treatment.
This process will include both system restructuring and the creation of new units to help improve the quality of care for children with cancer (creation of several Centers of Excellence ), pediatric palliative care, integrated outpatient pediatric hematology / oncology, start-up transplantation stem cells for children on the basis of NDSL "Okhmatdyt"; the beginning of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplants for children in the regions of Ukraine).
The draft Strategy states that it is necessary to conduct qualified training of doctors and junior medical staff. This includes structured training of pediatric hematologists, oncologists and nurses using international guidelines. The main goal of this task is to ensure the quality of life of patients and their families.
In general, the results of the National Strategy should be a reduction in morbidity and mortality by 5-10%.
The active community approves the presented project
Public figure Yuriy AndreevHe stressed that for the first time in many years in Ukraine such parliamentary hearings were held with the participation of representatives of the professional medical community, oncologists from all over the country, MPs, Minister of Health, NHSU leadership, experts and that this is extremely important. "More than 1,000,000 Ukrainians are registered with cancer. According to experts, every fourth man and every sixth woman in Ukraine has a risk of developing cancer. According to the National Cancer Registry, almost 140,000 people and about 1,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in Ukraine every year. According to forecasts, the incidence of malignant neoplasms in Ukraine by 2030 may increase to 180,000 people, " - said Yuri Andreev.
Following the parliamentary hearings, the participants decided to recommend:
1. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: to ensure adequate financing of medical guarantee programs in the amount of not less than 5% of Ukraine’s GDP.
2. To the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine: to approve the National Strategy for Cancer Control until 2030.
3. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Health: to develop and approve an action plan to the National Strategy for Cancer Control until 2030.
4. To the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Health: to ensure the adoption of the necessary regulations to provide palliative care services.
5. To the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Health: to develop and approve a program for the purchase of high-tech diagnostic and therapeutic equipment.
6. Institutions of higher education in the field of health care: to improve curricula and training programs in oncology.
7. To the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine: to ensure the development of environmentally sound standards for carcinogenic exposure to humans.
And if all this is implemented, the current situation will improve significantly.
Viktor Serdyuk , President of the All-Ukrainian Council for the Protection of Patients’ Rights and Safety, also emphasizes that this is a truly epoch-making parliamentary hearing on the fight against cancer. «There was a figure of the required funding for medicine, which is twice as much as today. Treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer should be funded. The average amount of treatment for a new cancer case was 100 times - UAH 100,000. That is, the program budget must be at least UAH 17 billion. It is also worth drawing on our own successful experience in treating cancer with meager funding. For example, the Kyiv City Oncology Center has achieved European indicators, which have become possible thanks to the increased city budget, work and order. There are also positive experiences in Cherkasy and Chernihiv, where there are regional cancer control programs. It has not been destroyed yet, " Serdyuk said .
In Ukraine, 16 people are diagnosed with cancer every hour. And each of them will react differently. But just waiting and hoping that it will somehow dissolve on its own is the worst course of action. It will NOT dissolve. This disease does not forgive lost time and the medical motto "Early diagnosis is the key to successful treatment!" about her. Yes, everyone chooses how to treat the disease. Some people think that he has cancer, and some people think that he is recovering from cancer. The main thing in the struggle for life - do not forget to live!
Live to hear the doctor’s words on the phone one morning: “There are no cancer cells in the body. Stable remission ".
Author Kateryna Stebelska
Other articles and news Dear
To be afraid or to fight?
Illness does not bring joy to anyone. Getting sick is always bad. Almost always, unless you’re a schoolboy who accidentally broke a toe, and now lie at home with your head immersed in the interesting world of a textbook on aerodynamics, dreaming of his own inventions a la Jacques Fresco. But if without jokes… It is impossible to prepare for the disease. Just when it happens, you understand - now life will be divided into "before" and "after".
Cancer is a disease that most people prefer to know nothing about, considering it a death sentence in advance, attributing to it a halo of terrible collective myths, which are in fact completely unjustified and artificially contrived. One of these is an almost textbook case: a young woman, 38 years old, during a medical examination by a gynecologist found a nodule on the breast and offered to seek professional advice from a mammologist to confirm or deny a probable diagnosis. A woman in despair, thoughts of cancer, fear of hearing the diagnosis… Refusal of a detailed medical examination of evidence-based medicine in favor of a healer who offers a tincture of mushrooms. As a result, women develop acute gastric ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding, which causes sudden death. The post-mortem examination did not reveal any cancer cells, and if she had undergone an additional examination, that would be healthy. So how many more lessons does society need at the expense of life when the dead teach the living?
What does the Ministry plan to do? The project presented by the Ministry of Health provides for several areas:
1. Ensure primary prevention of cancer by reducing the impact of risk factors and improving public awareness by engaging in active action.
2. Facilitate early detection of cancer.
3. Ensure equal and constant access to a viable network of health care facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
4. Develop a capable network of providing high-quality, coordinated and affordable treatment of oncology in children based on a multidisciplinary approach with decent care and support for children with cancer and their families.
5. Provide rehabilitation, care and palliative care to cancer patients and support their caregivers at all levels.
6. Improve information systems for cancer registration and surveillance of cancer patients to track the dynamics and evaluate the results of cancer control measures.
7. To increase the level of professional education of doctors, paramedics and medical workers in order to increase the number and quality of human resources.
8. Facilitate research with further use of results for cancer control.
Also, a separate Strategy highlights the treatment of cancer in children. After all, 1,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in Ukraine every year.At the same time, the growth of childhood morbidity is not observed in Ukraine or around the world. The strategy will be aimed primarily at reorganizing the process of providing services to improve the quality of treatment.
This process will include both system restructuring and the creation of new units to help improve the quality of care for children with cancer (creation of several Centers of Excellence ), pediatric palliative care, integrated outpatient pediatric hematology / oncology, start-up transplantation stem cells for children on the basis of NDSL "Okhmatdyt"; the beginning of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplants for children in the regions of Ukraine).
The draft Strategy states that it is necessary to conduct qualified training of doctors and junior medical staff. This includes structured training of pediatric hematologists, oncologists and nurses using international guidelines. The main goal of this task is to ensure the quality of life of patients and their families.
In general, the results of the National Strategy should be a reduction in morbidity and mortality by 5-10%.
The active community approves the presented project
Public figure Yuriy AndreevHe stressed that for the first time in many years in Ukraine such parliamentary hearings were held with the participation of representatives of the professional medical community, oncologists from all over the country, MPs, Minister of Health, NHSU leadership, experts and that this is extremely important. "More than 1,000,000 Ukrainians are registered with cancer. According to experts, every fourth man and every sixth woman in Ukraine has a risk of developing cancer. According to the National Cancer Registry, almost 140,000 people and about 1,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in Ukraine every year. According to forecasts, the incidence of malignant neoplasms in Ukraine by 2030 may increase to 180,000 people, " - said Yuri Andreev.
Following the parliamentary hearings, the participants decided to recommend:
1. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: to ensure adequate financing of medical guarantee programs in the amount of not less than 5% of Ukraine’s GDP.
2. To the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine: to approve the National Strategy for Cancer Control until 2030.
3. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Health: to develop and approve an action plan to the National Strategy for Cancer Control until 2030.
4. To the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Health: to ensure the adoption of the necessary regulations to provide palliative care services.
5. To the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Health: to develop and approve a program for the purchase of high-tech diagnostic and therapeutic equipment.
6. Institutions of higher education in the field of health care: to improve curricula and training programs in oncology.
7. To the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine: to ensure the development of environmentally sound standards for carcinogenic exposure to humans.
And if all this is implemented, the current situation will improve significantly.
Viktor Serdyuk , President of the All-Ukrainian Council for the Protection of Patients’ Rights and Safety, also emphasizes that this is a truly epoch-making parliamentary hearing on the fight against cancer. «There was a figure of the required funding for medicine, which is twice as much as today. Treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer should be funded. The average amount of treatment for a new cancer case was 100 times - UAH 100,000. That is, the program budget must be at least UAH 17 billion. It is also worth drawing on our own successful experience in treating cancer with meager funding. For example, the Kyiv City Oncology Center has achieved European indicators, which have become possible thanks to the increased city budget, work and order. There are also positive experiences in Cherkasy and Chernihiv, where there are regional cancer control programs. It has not been destroyed yet, " Serdyuk said . In Ukraine, 16 people are diagnosed with cancer every hour. And each of them will react differently. But just waiting and hoping that it will somehow dissolve on its own is the worst course of action. It will NOT dissolve. This disease does not forgive lost time and the medical motto "Early diagnosis is the key to successful treatment!" about her. Yes, everyone chooses how to treat the disease. Some people think that he has cancer, and some people think that he is recovering from cancer. The main thing in the struggle for life - do not forget to live!
Live to hear the doctor’s words on the phone one morning: “There are no cancer cells in the body. Stable remission ".
Author Kateryna Stebelska
Other articles and news Dear