The province of Turin has a wide hospital network, including the AOU San Luigi Gonzaga in Orbassano, which welcomes oncology patients from across the territory every day. Cancer treatment paths call for frequent visits, tests and therapy sessions, and for patients who are elderly, frail, immunocompromised or without an adequate family network, simply getting there can be a real obstacle, made harder still by their physical condition and the effects of treatment.
Access to care is one of the biggest challenges these patients face. Without a suitable way to travel or family support to rely on, the risk is isolation, a heavier emotional burden and gaps in treatment continuity, and caregivers carry a significant share of that organisational and psychological weight too. A service that can get patients to hospital safely, closing these gaps in access, becomes a priority.
The project
The project runs a personalised transport and accompaniment service for fragile oncology patients, built around each request: patients or their families reach out, their needs are assessed, and a suitable transport is organised through a local network of volunteer associations and taxi services, coordinated and monitored throughout, with feedback collected from those who use it.
Over the course of a year, the service is expected to carry out around 250 to 300 individual transports, giving patients continuous, safe access to their treatment appointments. The aim is to keep patients on track with their therapy, reduce the economic and organisational difficulties tied to travel, ease the sense of isolation many patients feel, and lighten the load carried by the family members and caregivers around them.
Who the project is for
The project's direct beneficiaries are around 80 to 100 adult oncology patients living in the province of Turin, each facing some form of physical, social or economic fragility and undergoing frequent or ongoing treatment.
Its impact reaches further, to at least 150 family members and caregivers, who benefit from a lighter organisational and emotional load, and to the wider local network of volunteer associations and transport services, whose collaboration strengthens a shared culture of care for the most vulnerable.
Project name: Accorciamo le Distanze – Mobilità solidale per i pazienti oncologici fragili
Proposing organisation: WALCE APS
Area of intervention: Health & Welfare
Country: Italy