Romania’s National Plan to Combat Cancer was launched on January 19, at an event hosted by the Presidential Administration. The strategy is needed to access EU funding for healthcare.

Speaking at the event, president Klaus Iohannis called it a “long-awaited, coherent and unitary strategy to fight this dreaded illness.”

It stresses the need for investigations that lead to early diagnosis and efficient treatment and the additional funding for tests, the president said.

Beginning next year, national screening programs for certain types of cancers should be fully operational. The criteria allowing for coverage for genetic testing should also be finalized next year, allowing for better-targeted treatment.

Another measure is the setting up of a National Cancer Registry by the end of 2024. 

A fund for health innovation, offering local patients access to the newest treatments, is to be set up between 2023 and 2026.

Between 2023 and 2024, the plan foresees the outlining of solutions for funding palliative care for cancer patients, the president explained.

The president spoke of the opportunity to rethink a healthcare sector made vulnerable by the decades-long lack of adequate investment and said he would follow closely the implementation of the plan, “essential in our country which, unfortunately, leads in European statistics on the number of cancer patients.”

The European Commission presented Europe's Beating Cancer Plan in February 2021. It will be implemented using the whole range of Commission funding instruments, with a total of EUR 4 billion earmarked for actions addressing cancer, including from the EU4Health program, Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe program.

(Photo: Zerbor | Dreamstime.com)

simona@romania-insider.com