Getting treatment for cancer in the Tyks Hospital

Together with your treating physician, you may choose where you want to have your condition treated. When you fall ill, you must first visit either a private physician or a physician at a health care centre or occupational care centre. The physician will write a referral for further examinations and, if needed, treatment at a hospital.

In the case of cancer, treatment is always started urgently, and referrals are processed without delay. Treatment recommendations state that therapy should start no later than 4–6 weeks after the referral has been written and if the case is considered to be urgent, even sooner.

The time to treatment at the Western Finland Cancer Centre

The Cancer Centre monitors the execution of cancer treatments by following the time from arrival of the referral to the very first treatment contact (visit to a physician, telephone call on treatment or treatment meeting) and the overall time to treatment, i.e., the time from arrival of the referral or the treatment decision to start of the first treatment.

The time to treatment is presented as the average time to treatment in three-month periods. Patients who need urgent or emergency care receive treatment on the same day, if needed. The times presented to not reflect waiting times, because patients may visit health care facilities for other reasons, e.g., for imaging or laboratory examinations, and such visits are not measured for timing.

Cancer types for which waiting times to the Tyks have been presented (in Finnish):

• Brain tumours
• Prostate cancer
• Gynaecological cancer
• Lung cancer
• Breast cancer
• Gut cancer