The Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL) held their end-of-year reception, taking place on 7 December in Brussels.
ECL presented the results of its year-long work on cancer patients’ rights.
At a time when the EU is intensely discussing issues such as patient mobility, the provision of healthcare services in the internal market and health inequalities, ECL believes that a greater dialogue should be taking place on this subject between health and cancer-related NGOs, and with their institutional counterparts and all the other stakeholders.
In this context, ECL has produced European guidelines for cancer patients’ rights, which are being promoted throughout Europe in 2005 (see below).
To develop these guidelines, ECL based its work on existing initiatives and regulations defining general patients’ rights, and looked into the specificity of cancer patients’ situations.
The resulting guidelines go beyond the ‘patient-professional’ relations to include several key social and economic rights which should be observed across the EU.
