Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer treatment and prevention services (CoPaK)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly transformed, affecting the availability, delivery, and utilisation of health services.

Reports indicated that patients avoided contact with healthcare providers due to concerns about infection, resulting in less frequent cancer screenings. The treatment of cancer patients was also affected, for example by interruptions of ongoing chemotherapy or postponements of surgical procedures. These changes were mainly attributable to individual risk assessments and pandemic-related concerns.

To address these challenges, healthcare organisations had to develop various strategies. At the time the project was conceived (mid-2020), little was known about which strategies existed or what their impact was.

The CoPaK project analysed strategies developed by health care organisations in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting a multi-stakeholder perspective.

The project identified the perceptions and expectations of healthcare professionals and healthcare users, reconstructed decision-making processes, and documented good practice approaches. An overview of existing guidelines for managing pandemics in he context of cancer treatment and prevention was also compiled. This serves as the foundation for a planned project proposal aiming to conduct an in-depth survey of cancer care providers to assess the usability of the strategies developed so far and to identify areas for improvement in future guidance materials.