There is a chronic global shortage of palliative care to relieve and prevent the suffering of patients with serious illness, a new study shows.
The Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life is published by the World Health Organisation and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance. Together, they set out to map the unmet need for palliative care around the world.
Just 10% of people who need palliative care are currently receiving it, they found. More than 20 million patients need palliative care each year, at the end of life. But the figure rises to at least 40 million if all those that could benefit from palliative care at an earlier stage of their illness are included. Such care includes support for the physical, psychosocial and emotional suffering of patients, as well as pain relief.
Currently, most palliative care is provided in high-income countries, but nearly 80% of the global need for palliative care is in low- and middle-income countries. Patients needing this support may have chronic, life-threatening diseases including HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis, cancer, or progressive illnesses of the heart, lung, liver, kidney, or brain.
Dr Oleg Chestnov of the WHO says that only 20 countries have palliative care well integrated into their health care systems. "While we strengthen efforts to reduce the burden of the biggest killers in the world today, we must also alleviate the suffering of those with progressive illness who do not respond to curative treatment," he says.
The WHO calls on all countries to focus on palliative care via health policies, investment in resources such as pain relievers, and better education of health care professionals.
Leave a Reply