Eurocarers contributed to the article ‘ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care’

ECCO (the European CanCer Organisation) connects the European cancer community by leveraging knowledge, promoting education and building awareness. ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care (ERQCC) are checklists and explanations of organisation and actions that are necessary to give high-quality care to cancer patients.They are written by European experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care.This paper concerns the integration of primary care into care for all cancers in Europe.

Primary care integration:

•Primary care professionals play major roles in the diagnosis of cancer and care of cancer patients
•There are many opportunities for extending care at the primary level to cope with the increasing cancer burden and its nature as a chronic disease,but there are also significant barriers to progress towards high-quality patient-centred care
•To meet European aspirations for comprehensive cancer control, health care organisations must consider the requirements in this paper to include primary and community care in patient-centred pathways from diagnosis to treatment and survivorship.

Eurocarers was invited to contribute to the drafting of this paper, which includes a specific paragraph on carers (4.7) and refers to Eurocarers’ Toolkit for Cancer Carers.