A key action within the Strategy is the development of minimum preparedness criteria for essential services, including hospitals. ESMO calls for the integration of sustainable cancer care services into emergency and pandemic preparedness plans, to ensure patients with cancer continue to receive necessary care during crises.
The Society urges the European Commission, and Member States, to include its recommendations – already amalgamated into the World Health Organisation (WHO) European Strategy for Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Resilience (2024–2029) – into their policies and actions. These recommendations include:
- Safeguarding access to cancer care: Ensuring uninterrupted cancer services, including screening, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and palliative care.
- Supporting healthcare workers: Prioritising the wellbeing of oncology workforce by ensuring decent working conditions, mental health support, and ethical guidelines for decision-making in resource-scarce situations.
- Reducing cancer care inequities: Establishing resilient healthcare systems based on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), addressing disparities in cancer care access, and developing robust referral systems from primary to secondary and tertiary care levels where patients with cancer are predominately treated.
ESMO continues to advocate for the incorporation of these preparedness measures at the forthcoming 78th World Health Assembly that brings together 194 Member States in Geneva 19.-27. May 2025, to ensure that hospitals maintain essential health services, such as care for patients with cancer, without disruption in times of crises.