EFA Oxygen Harmonisation project Calls for Patient Stories and Inquiries
In order to make the Oxygen Harmonisation Project a great success, it was agreed to collect real life stories and inquiries from patients with chronic respiratory diseases who require oxygen when they travel in airplanes.
The inquiries and stories are requested to assist EFA provide evidence to justify improvement in assistance for the unsolved situation regarding the harmonisation of oxygen use in European air travel. The inquiries are asked to be very specific in being related to issues for patients which may prevent obstacles to travel in the first place or complicating travels once they are at the airport or in airplanes. The language of the question does not have to be English and in fact EFA members and patients are recommended to ask them in their own native language!
In addition, EFA calls for stories by using the outline, which would be signed by their authors along with mailing address and e-mail address, as the first 20 patients to submit stories will receive a small gift for their contributions from the EFA Secretariat in Brussels. Patients’ stories should highlight negative experiences in air travel due to their unmet needs or confusion for how to acquire oxygen. EFA plans to collect a total of 100 patient stories, which would be finally printed as a booklet. This will be presented to policymakers and other stakeholders who can influence and change the status quo. These patient testimonials would be powerful in demonstrating a problem exists across EU member states and could generate a unique opportunity to remedy the problem at the EU level if it garners support from a broad base of stakeholders.
Over the past month, EFA has worked in collaboration with the European Lung Foundation (ELF) to collect stories and will continue to do so in coming months. Stories can be e-mailed to Joke De Vocht (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and the EFA Secretariat accepts stories by mail to: 4 rue de la presse, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Other inquiries about the project should be sent to EFA Fundraising and Project Officer Antje Fink-Wagner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), EFA Project Manager (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).