• Richard B L Lim, Choi Ling Yeat, Ruben Vighneshvaran, Nirmala Kasinathan, Ahmad SubkiSiti ZubaidahSZMedical Development Unit (S.Z.A.S.), Ministry of Health Malaysia, Putrajaya, Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya, Malaysia., Arvinder H S Singh, and Nur Dalila Saad.
• Palliative Care Unit (R.B.L.L.), Selayang Hospital, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Electronic address: limbl@selayanghospital.gov.my.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2023 Sep 1; 66 (3): 221229221-229.

Introduction And ObjectivesThis national audit involving Ministry of Health (MOH) Hospitals aimed to map out the levels of development of palliative care services and essential palliative medication availability in Malaysia.Materials And MethodsAn online survey coupled with manual follow up was conducted throughout all MOH hospitals in Malaysia. Data collected described elements of the palliative care service(PCS) based on the WHO public health model. Data was computed using a novel matrix to determine three key indices which were the 1) palliative care development score (PCDS), 2)essential medications availability score (EMAS) and 3) opioid availability score (OAS). These scores then allowed mapping of PCS according to scores of 1-4 (1=least developed, 4=most developed).FindingsOut of all 140 MOH hospitals 88.6% (124) completed the PCDS survey, 120(85.7%) for the EMAS survey and 140 (100%) for the OAS survey. A total of 32(25.8%) hospitals had formal PCS with 8(25%) having resident palliative physicians (RPP), 8(25%) visiting palliative physicians(VPP) and 16(50%) no palliative physician (NPP). Out of these services, 17 (53%) had dedicated palliative care beds. In the PCDS survey, hospitals with PCS had significantly higher mean PCDS of 2.59 compared to 1.02 for non-PCS hospitals (P<0.001). The EMAS survey showed 109(90.8%) hospitals had EMAS of four and the OAS survey showed that 135(96.4%) hospitals had oral morphine available.ConclusionThis study shows that palliative care service development in MOH hospitals is still very limited however, majority of MOH hospitals in Malaysia have all the essential medications and oral morphine available.Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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