Supporting the achievement of Universal Health Coverage with resources for cancer prevention and control
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) means that everyone, everywhere, should have access to full range of health services, when and wherever they need them, without risk of financial hardship. ESMO calls for countries to guarantee their entire population UHC benefit packages that include a core set of comprehensive, safe, affordable, effective, and high-quality services for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, palliative care, rehabilitative services for all NCDs, including cancer, that are well funded and delivered by an adequate number of well-trained and well-resourced health workforce. UHC is key to achieving sustainable and resilient healthcare systems, including access to cancer services, and avoiding delays and disruptions in healthcare services, especially during health emergencies / pandemics.
In 2019 the United Nations held its first High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage. The outcome of that meeting was a Political Declaration indicating political commitment by Heads of State to achieving UHC by 2030. The second UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage in 2023 provided countries and stakeholders with an opportunity to reinvigorate progress towards delivering health for all, in a context which the Covid-19 pandemic had exacerbated challenges to health systems, and societies at large, resulting in a set back to the progress towards achieving UHC. The outcome document - 2023 UN Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) – aims to accelerate and intensify priority actions towards achieving UHC by 2030.
ESMO has raised awareness with the World Health Organization and the UN of examples of ESMO’s cancer resources that can help support countries in their efforts to deliver the three strands of Universal Health Coverage:
- The ‘ESMO Global Curriculum in Medical Oncology’ can support training the necessary workforce to ‘increase population coverage’;
- The evidence-based ‘ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines’ and ‘Pan-Asian Adapted Guidelines’ can support decisions to cost-effectively ‘expand essential health services’;
- The ‘ESMO-Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale’ can support countries to prioritize the use of cancer medicines to both improve health outcomes and ‘reduce the financial burden of health services’.