INTENT Local Consensus Meetings
Local Consensus Meetings were carried out in April and March 2019 in all five pilot sites: Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in Italy, Brno in Czech Republic, Budapest in Hungary and Slovenia. Local Stakeholders in cancer care were convened in order to reach a consensus on actions needed to enable an effective use of the new patient-centred cancer care model and guidelines. Meetings were held in the framework of INTENT Interreg project, which joined partners into cooperation that aims at development of an innovative Patient Centred Cancer Care Model and guidelines for its implementation. Project Partners presented the INTENT promotional video and explained the communication strategy to Local Stakeholders
In 2018, patient centred care was evaluated in Central European regions. The evaluating survey involved patients and caregivers from all five regions, participating in INTENT. As Olga Sapožnikov described in detail in Proceedings Book of XLIII. Brno Oncology Days: “Two types of questionnaires – patients and caregivers – covered significant fields that arose from a Consensus on definition and dimensions of patient-centred cancer-care; information, communication and education, shared decision making, continuity of care, accessibility, physical and emotional support and research. Questions were presented as multiple-choice format with rating of three best options, single-option choice and open questions. Altogether, over 1000 patient questionnaires were collected and processed. The outcomes of the patient survey have shown that patients prefer direct contact with the cancer centre regardless of the purpose, as well as engagement of close family members into communication process during diagnosis and treatment. During the discussion on treatment plan, patients want to be informed about suitable treatment options. Waiting times were mentioned as the most common barrier in the filed of accessibility. Moreover, repliers mentioned that they would prefer to have more time dedicated to their visit. The team identified fields which, according to the patient’s view, could be taken over by volunteer organizations as well as services, which patients would prefer to receive closer to their homes. An important result of the survey was the finding that patients show interest in participation in oncologic research project, this included not only clinical studies, but also implementation of innovation technologies into reporting. Moreover, the survey included questions about possible methods of patient contribution to the design and the quality improvement of healthcare services. In addition, patients believe that quality surveys are an important feedback for the work at the cancer centre. Caregiver questionnaires contained similar dimensions as the patient questionnaires, with the exclusion of the support categories.”
After presentations of the survey results strengths and weaknesses were identified and potential improvement actions and possible threats to the Patient Centred Cancer Care Model were envisioned in each region, considering local circumstances. Local Stakeholder Meetings provided the opportunity for closer collaboration to all the stakeholders in Patient Centred Cancer Care.
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