ANT Foundation Italy Onlus operates in the name of Eubiosia (from the greek meaning life in dignity). ANT has assisted 144,000 cancer patients since 1985 completely free of charge. Every year 10,000 people are assisted in their homes in eleven Italian regions (Emilia-Romagna, Lombardia, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Toscana, Lazio, Marche, Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Umbria) by health professionals who assure the patient and his family all the necessary hospital assistance and social assistance.
491 professionals work for the Foundation (doctors, nurses, psychologists, nutritionists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, health workers and office staff) supported by over 2,000 active volunteers in fundraising activities necessary to financially sustain the work of the doctors. The support offered by ANT deals with all kinds of problems from the perspective of the “general welfare” of the patient. Since 2015, the ANT oncological home care service has had the UNI EN ISO 9001: 2015 quality certificate issued by Globe srl.
The ANT Foundation is also strongly committed to cancer prevention with early detection projects of melanoma, thyroid cancer, gynaecological and breast cancer. Since the inception of the projects in 2004, 225.000 patients were examined free of charge in 88 Italian provinces. Prevention campaigns are carried out at health facilities (that offer their location free of charge to ANT), in ANT clinics, as well as the mobile clinic – the Prevention BUS. The vehicle, equipped with the latest diagnostic equipment (digital mammography, ultrasound and videodermatoscope) allows a health professional to perform preventive visits throughout the country as part of the various ANT projects. The ANT Foundation operates in Italy through 176 delegations where the presence of volunteers is highly active.
The Department of ANT Scientific Research and Development was created in 2003 under the guidance of the ANT Scientific Committee, a department tasked with monitoring research and defining guidelines. ANT also carries out awareness raising activities in all levels of schools regarding health matters, prevention, solidarity and volunteering. Furthermore, ANT participates in two European projects on active ageing and health and improvement strategies to raise the quality of palliative care.
At a local level, awareness and fund-raising initiatives and the provision of logistics necessary to home healthcare are under the competence of the Delegations. Taking 2019 as an example, ANT finances most of its activities thanks to the donations of private citizens (29%), the tax contribution of 5×1000 (25%) and donations and bequests (20%). Only 19% of the collected total comes from public funds.
ANT Onlus is the 9th in the national ranking of 5×1000 in the voluntary category.
The responsibility of caring for a patient by ANT has a cost of around €2,000 (excluding medicine which is covered by the National Health Service with a cost comparable to that of ANT’s) throughout the average care period. Taking into account the fact that the daily cost of hospitalization in a residential facility dedicated to palliative care is about €240 and the daily cost of hospitalization in a public hospital is about €780, the results in savings is evident (source: Ageing Society – Third Age Observatory of the Ministry of Health data, Farmindustria).
