Following a letter sent by the Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, to all 194 Heads of State, in September 2021, a number of Member States responded, expressing their support for the Director-General’s call on countries to “face this global challenge on palliative care with collective compassion”, and describing how they were strengthening palliative care services, and indicating how they were expanding access to these services .
The information passed back to WHO by these Member States is summarized below.
- Country experiences can be usefully shared. For example, Uganda began providing palliative care in 1993, and to date, 79% of its health districts provide palliative care services. The country has a ministerial division dedicated to palliative care, specialized educational programmes and Hospice Africa provides oral morphine. A national policy should be approved soon, along with several guidance documents.
- Some of the countries, such as Portugal, have adopted laws including the right to access palliative care, while others have created national networks, and integrated palliative care within primary health care. However, palliative care needs are still rarely able to be fully covered worldwide, since it is estimated that just over 10% of people have access to quality palliative care services.
- Heads of State reported on the existence of national strategies and action, as well as national guidelines and educational programmes being developed in recent years.
- Institutions such as the All-Ireland Institute of Palliative Care, created in 2001, have been strongly contributing to the development of palliative care in a number of countries.
- In some countries, Heads of State have issued statements to express the commitment of their country to strengthening palliative care and make progress towards fulfilling what the Director-General refers to as our “common moral duty” of alleviating suffering among the most vulnerable people, namely those suffering from a life-threatening illness.
- Most countries are committed to celebrating World Palliative Care Day, on 9 September every year, an event organized by the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance.