News
Covid-19 Implications
23 Apr 2020
The year 2020 was originally going to be the busiest year to date for the OECI A&D Programme, with a total of 14 Peer Reviews planned, of which 9 were Italian cancer centres. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 situation in Europe, from February 2020 until the Summer, 5 reviews have been postponed so far. There may also be consequences for reviews planned for September to December 2020, as the centres, which are currently working on their self assessments, may have difficulties completing the questionnaires within the deadline due to the crisis.
OECI does not want to burden centres with a peer review when their professionals are coping with a health care crisis. Also, our auditors are employed in European hospitals, most of which are also dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and some of which at the present time do not permit their staff to travel abroad.
As a result, the deadlines will be redefined. The OECI A&D Co-ordination team will work with the centres to see what is feasible and reschedule the visits, starting with the centres that were scheduled for the first half of 2020. For centres working on the self assessment, we advise them to keep working on it, as far as the situation permits, so that we can plan the visit as soon as the Covid-19 situation is over.
