Premium
President Klaus Iohannis stated, on Wednesday, that the National Plan to combat cancer sets "realistic and measurable objectives", defines a standardized path for the patient and places emphasis on encouraging and financing additional medical investigations.
"This year we will mark for the first time the World Cancer Day, on February 4, through assumed commitments and lines of action for their immediate implementation, and not only though dialogue about desires, necessities and justifications of lack of action. We are launching, thus, a national plan that develops both a vision for the present, as well as for future generations, and which relies on an integrated, ambitious approach tied to European efforts to reduce cancer occurrence. (...) The plan places great emphasis on the encouragement and financing of additional medical investigations, which would detect the first signs of disease and lead to early diagnosis and efficient treatment," said the head of state, at the Cotroceni Palace, at the launching of the National Plan to combat cancer.
He gave a few examples of provisions in this plan, in force starting with 2023, among which: the national screening programs for certain types of cancer; finalizing the criteria to allow the discounting of genetic testing, following which treatment that is better aimed and has a better chance of curing can be prescribed; until the end of 2024, the finalization of National Cancer Register; in the 2023-2026 period, the finalization of an innovation fund for healthcare, which would offer patients in Romania quick access to the newest therapies; in the 2023-2024 interval, the identification of solutions for the financing of palliative care for cancer patients, a way to improve the quality of life of the oncology patients, as well as for the families and loved ones.
Iohannis emphasized that, presently, there is the opportunity, but also the means to rethink the healthcare system, "made vulnerable though the lack of adequate investments over a few decades," and added that the pressure put by the pandemic in the past two years on the healthcare sector has been unprecedented, but "the diagnosis of an affliction cannot wait for the end of the pandemic, adequate treatment for the control of disease development becoming inefficient if administered late.
The President also said that healthcare must remain beyond any political games.
