The European patient advocacy perspective on specialist breast units and accreditation

Abstract

Europa Donna--The European Breast Cancer Coalition has been advocating for all women to have access to care in specialist breast units since 2003. Two European Parliament Resolutions, (2003 and 2006) as well as the Written Declaration against breast cancer in the EU of 2010 called on member states to ensure that all women in the European Union have access to treatment in such units set up in accordance with the "European Guidelines for quality assurance in breast cancer screening and diagnosis," by 2016. Once mammography screening implementation according to EU Guidelines commenced, it became evident that it would be essential to have high-quality units where women would receive specialised treatment upon diagnosis. Europa Donna was a member of the revision committee for Chapter 9 of the 4th edition of these Guidelines (2006) which provided a detailed description of these services as previously defined by EUSOMA. Moreover, the 2010 Written Declaration on the fight against breast cancer in the EU called on the Commission "to develop a certification protocol for specialist breast units in accordance with EU Guidelines by 2011". The most important thing for a woman diagnosed with breast cancer to know is where to go to get the best treatment, i.e. she needs to know that the clinic or unit is accredited as having implemented appropriate quality standards that meet EU Guidelines thus ensuring provision of high level breast services, and that her national health system will pay for it. Progress on accomplishing this has not moved quickly, nor has it been accepted by all stakeholders involved.

Keywords: Accreditation; Best practice; Breast cancer advocacy; Multidisciplinary team; Quality assurance; Specialist breast units.