Lack of access to palliative care services for 57 million people worldwide

According to Fars Health Group, Abbas Ebadi, Deputy Minister of Nursing of the Ministry of Health, in a message on the occasion of “World Hospice Day and Palliative Care”, while reviewing the situation of palliative care in the world, said: Among the deaths reported in 2017 in 195 countries In the world, 73.4% of them are due to non-communicable diseases and in Iran, 76% of the disease burden is allocated to these diseases. Obviously, due to the need of patients and their families for comprehensive physical, psychological, social and spiritual care from the onset of the disease until after the patient’s death, providing palliative care to improve their quality of life is a must.

57 million people worldwide do not have access to palliative care services

He added: “Despite the importance of palliative care, a large number of people in need of this care, which is currently estimated at 57 million people, do not have access to palliative care services.” 25.7 million of these patients need end-of-life care, and seven percent of them are children.

Ebadi added: “Obviously, without palliative care, achieving universal health coverage, including promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care as one of the rights of individuals and the goal of sustainable development of the United Nations will not be possible.”

Emphasis on World Health Assembly resolution on strengthening palliative care

He added: “Since 2014 and after the adoption of the resolution of the World Health Assembly entitled” Strengthening palliative care as part of comprehensive care throughout life “in which all countries were asked to strengthen palliative care and make it available To ensure its existence, many measures have been taken in this direction in the country.

Ministry of Health efforts to improve palliative care services

Referring to the importance of the four axes of policy, education, research and clinical services in promoting palliative care, the Deputy Minister of Nursing said: The Deputy Minister of Nursing has focused its efforts on policy and planning in these four areas, some of which with the participation of the office Regional WHO is underway.

Actions of the Deputy of Nursing in order to provide palliative care

Ebadi, Development of standard home service packages to provide palliative care and end of life in children and adults with cancer, Development of nursing service packages in hospice centers, pilot project of establishment of child and adult palliative care centers and localization of clinical guidelines for palliative care nursing Among the measures implemented and being implemented by the deputy in this area, he added: “Considering the necessity of training the nursing staff to provide palliative care services, most of the deputy’s programs have been targeted in this regard.”

Increasing the number of articles related to palliative care in Scopus database by Iranian nursing specialists

According to the Ministry of Health Public Relations, he noted: The largest number of articles related to palliative care in the Eastern Mediterranean region, which has been indexed in the Scopus database in recent years, belongs to Iranian nurses and the number of nursing specialists in this field is increasing.

It is worth mentioning that 17 October (October 9) has been designated as the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, and the slogan for 2021 for this day is “Do not leave anyone behind – justice in access to palliative care”.

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