The patient jury has a significant impact on the development of Tays Cancer Centre’s services

The Tays Cancer Centre patient jury offers a unique way to directly influence the development of the cancer centre’s operations and services. The patient jury consists of adult patients of different ages and with different cancers and their loved ones selected through an application procedure. Patients provide valuable perspectives on the development of operations, and the patient jury’s statements also have a stronger impact on decision-making in the wellbeing services county.

The activities of the patient jury are goal-oriented

Tays Cancer Centre has had patient jury since 2017. The newest term of office started in spring 2023. Meetings are held on average four times a year in close cooperation with the Cancer Centre’s professionals and the Cancer Society of Tampere Region. At the beginning of the term of office, the tasks and objectives of the jury’s activities are defined together and the rules of the game are agreed.

At the meetings, patient members have the opportunity to express their opinions and experiences. As agreed, experts may also be invited to speak on topics considered important by the jury. The professionals invited to participate in the meetings have been selected on the basis of their position to promote the development ideas that have arisen and to address any shortcomings that have been identified.

The patient jury has been influential, among other things, in establishing a psychosocial support unit at the Tays Cancer Centre. In addition, the jury’s patient representation influences the meetings of the steering group of the Tays Cancer Centre and in many other development groups and cancer teams within the hospital. A small working group consisting of members of the patient jury has been strongly involved in developing the content of the new pirha.fi website aimed at cancer patients.

Significant advances in communication and digital content

Kari Koskinen has long-term experience of being a customer of different outpatient clinics and serving on patient panels. He has been treated at the Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic for pituitary tumor since the early 2000s, and in oncology for about ten years for melanoma and prostate cancer. Koskinen has seen how access to information and interaction has improved over the years. – At first, communication was rather one-way and top-down, and information was not really available anywhere, Koskinen recalls.

This was solved already in the first patient jury, in which Koskinen participated. The development target was a room painting on how doctors are expected to meet their patients. According to Koskinen, it is still relevant. The improvements proposed by the patient jury relate to a wide range of issues, from correcting information missing from the invitation letter to larger issues.

Koskinen considers the activities of patient panels important both from the perspective of encountering people in the same situation and from the perspective of developing operations. According to him, digital services in particular, and thus the flow of information, have improved significantly and are constantly being developed. This is also praised by Anne Lindfors, Executive Director of the Cancer Society of Tampere Region and chair of the patient jury.– The Pirha.fi website has received a lot of information that the patient jury has been hoping for for a long time. The end result is good and many will certainly benefit from it.

Koskinen thinks it is excellent that the website contains information on treatment paths, i.e. the progress of treatment and drug trials, which can be helpful in cases where nothing else seems to work. In terms of digitalization, Lindfors sees room for improvement in terms of equality between different types of cancer, so that everyone can receive information online in the same way. According to her, it is development work that pays for itself.t samalla tavalla tietoa verkon kautta. Se on hänen mukaansa kehitystyötä, joka maksaa itsensä takaisin.

Knowledge calms you down

Koskinen, who has a lot of experience, encourages patients to be active in maintaining their physical condition and advises them to find out as much as possible through reliable sources.– When you are well informed, it calms your mind and gives you the opportunity to talk to the doctor on a more equal footing. Or if you don’t understand what a decision is based on, it’s always good to ask. We should not leave ourselves as driftwood.

Currently, the Cancer Society of Pirkanmaa and Tays Cancer Centre are jointly focusing on how to improve and help the patient’s overall situation, i.e. life situation including family and loved ones. The aim is to distribute information about the Cancer Society’s activities and the support it offers to patients and their loved ones as comprehensively as possible.– Many people already receive information about the cancer society’s activities from the Cancer Centre’s staff, but we will do our best to increase this communication, so that every patient will learn about our services, says Anne Lindfors.

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