CARO Endorses Radiation Therapy Patient Charter

In 2014 CARO started the ground-breaking task of facilitating the development of a Radiation Therapy Patient Charter.  We are pleased to share with you the final Charter, and encourage you to promote this document at your centre.

Purpose

The Radiation Therapy Patient Charter defines a minimum set of rights of radiation oncology care from a patient’s perspective.  The charter provides patients with a tool to understand their rights when undergoing radiation treatment.  Without being overly prescriptive, these rights will also help radiation treatment programs establish a set of patient-centred priorities for treatment planning, programmatic development and patient engagement and education.

Community Engagement

While this project was spearheaded by CARO, it was driven by the radiation treatment community and supported by patients, patient advocacy organizations and other groups involved in radiation treatment delivery and quality initiatives.  Our Patient Charter Working Group included charter experts, radiation oncologists, medical physicists, radiation therapists, patients, patient advocates and administrators.

What can you do?

Endorsed by CARO, we would like to see the Charter posted at radiation treatment centres across the country.   We have included formatted versions of the Charter in both English and French for you to post.  We have also included an unformatted word version of the charter for you to adapt to your centre’s branding policies.  Translation of the Charter into other languages is encouraged and can be facilitated by CARO.

Thank you for being part of this exciting initiative! May this pave the way for more patient-centric activities.

For inquires please contact Erika Brown.