How do health systems meet the challenge of managing chronic diseases during COVID-19 and beyond? - EONS

“As healthcare professionals and patient advocacy organisations representing cancer patients and their families, our aim is to work together to ensure that WHO’s first principle is adhered to: to reduce deaths and disease burden and protect those who most need protection.”

EONS Supports ESMO’s Call to Action to Protect Cancer Patients

One in three adult Europeans suffers from chronic disease and more than 80% die from it. Early reports indicate that these patients, especially diabetics, cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer patients are at high risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chronic disease patients were more vulnerable to infection, more frequently hospitalised, were more severely ill, as illustrated by more admissions to intensive care units (ICUs), and had higher mortality rates than the general population. Furthermore, our healthcare systems were unprepared to respond to such an emergency, which resulted in severe disruptions in care delivery, including postponement of ‘non-urgent’ interventions because many patients feared infection or placing an additional burden on healthcare workers. 2020 highlighted that health should be our number one priority towards building sustainable social and economic environment but nevertheless, less than 10% of European investment is spent in health prevention. EONS is participating in an ESMO campaign to ensure that cancer patients are prioritised with a COVID vaccine in order to protect them against the virus.
Link to slides and recording of webinar
Link to online version of Call to Action
Find out more about the challenges of people with chronic illnesses during the pandemic