Switzerland

Cancer care in Switzerland

Switzerland is known for having one of the best healthcare systems in the world. The decentralised structure favours an almost unconstrained choice of providers and a high availability and accessibility of healthcare services. However, this comes at a significant cost: health expenditure in Switzerland is higher than in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This is why international organisations like the World Health Organization and OECD have pointed out that Switzerland’s main challenges lie in becoming more cost-effective.¹ Indeed, with the second highest healthcare spending in the world² and an above-average investment in cancer care of more than 6%,³ Switzerland produces lower health outcomes per money spent compared with other countries.⁴

Every year, more than 40,000 Swiss citizens are diagnosed with cancer.⁵ While incidence rates for cancer have remained constant since 1980, mortality rates have dropped by more than 30%. This achievement was possible thanks to medical advances in diagnostic technology, medicines and care.⁶ Nonetheless, the diagnosis for people with cancer still comes with a high burden for patients as well as their environment. There are countless opportunities across Switzerland to make cancer care more efficient and more sustainable. In particular, cancer care should become more patient-centred, focusing on patient needs and patient-reported outcomes. This is what All.Can Switzerland intends to do.

All.Can Switzerland initiative

All.Can Switzerland launched in early 2018 with a handful of interested stakeholders. Throughout the year, its first projects were initiated. In November 2019, All.Can Switzerland officially launched as a Non-profit organisation with an event at the University of Zurich with nearly 100 stakeholders of the Swiss healthcare and policy system present.

All.Can Switzerland’s vision is to develop solutions for sustainable cancer care, with a strong focus on improving patient outcomes. All.Can Switzerland wants to achieve this through an open dialogue and a broad collaboration with all interested stakeholders sharing the same vision.

Therefore, we are continuously expanding our membership base and are always looking for interested stakeholders and possible project partners. Interested in All.Can Switzerland? Please get in touch with us: switzerland@all-can.org

Visit the All.Can Switzerland website here.

References

1. OECD. 2011. OECD Reviews of Health Systems – Switzerland, p. 9. Available here: http://www.oecd.org/switzerland/oecdreviewsofhealthsystems-switzerland.htm [accessed: May 2018]
2. OECD. 2018. Health spending. Available here: https://data.oecd.org/chart/5b8O [accessed: May 2018]
3. Wieser et al. 2014. Die Kosten der nichtübertragbaren Krankheiten in der Schweiz, Schlussbericht, p. 52. Available here: http://bit.ly/zhaw14 [accessed: August 2018]
4. OECD. 2018 Available here: http://stats.oecd.org/ [accessed: May 2018]
5. Heusser et al. 2017. Krebs in der Schweiz, Zahlen Weiterentwicklung der Krebsregistrierung und Folgen, in: Onkologe, 23:588-596. Available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00761-017-0252-4
6. Federal Office of Statistics/NICER. 2017. Schweizer Krebsbericht 2015. Available here: http://bit.ly/Krebsbericht [accessed: August 2018]