“We wanted to bring to light, describing it in a report, the daily work that all of us associations do both in terms of patient support and in bringing the needs and requests to the tables of those who decide. The other important thing is precisely this, we should be able to be more and more incisive there”. This was highlighted by Rosanna D’Antona, president of Europa Donna Italia, today on the sidelines of the presentation in Milan of the Report on the enhancement of the Allied for Health volunteer network. A reflection on which Giuseppe Toro, national president of AIL (Italian Association against leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma) also intervenes: “We come from a phase in which we were not taken into sufficient consideration, but in recent years a listening phase has opened which now it must be organized. It is important that in the tables where decisions on diseases, drugs, protocols are made, patients and their associations are heard”.
All of this, he points out, “is still being organised, there are a whole series of initiatives, but it will have to be organized in a clearer way. We are a bit at the beginning and the real problem is that the institutions have to give themselves a rule, and feel associations by pathology, by interests and so on. I think this step is fundamental”. “We feel listened to”, points out D’Antona who sees what is underway as a journey. “We started from 10-15 years ago when we were seen only as standing alongside the patient and the family, but now the whole health care system is realizing that without our data and our recommendations, there is nowhere to go. So we are happy, we still have a little way to go but we will do it”.
“We have something to give, but the institutions need to receive from us in order to make the right decisions – continues D’Antona’s reasoning – I strongly believe in this. Both the ministry and the Regions must balance their budgets, so rightly so they must operate by priority. If they have the right data from us, they can make their choices better. When the institutions and politicians understand that we can be useful for them, then it’s bingo. It’s the point we want to get to”.
#Associations #listening #patients #tables #systematic #organized