Journal of pain and symptom management
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2007
ReviewVietnam: integrating palliative care into HIV/AIDS and cancer care.
Vietnam is struggling to meet the growing need for both disease-modifying and palliative care for people with life-threatening chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer. Recently, Vietnam initiated rapid development of a national palliative care program for HIV/AIDS and cancer patients that builds on existing palliative care programs and experience and integrates palliative care into standard HIV/AIDS and cancer care. National palliative care guidelines have been issued by the Ministry of Health based on a rapid situation analysis. Plans now call for review and revision of opioid laws and regulations to increase availability of opioids for medical use, training in palliative care for clinicians throughout the country, and development of palliative care programs both in the community and in inpatient referral centers.
-
Access to the necessary medications for palliative care, especially opioids, is an essential part in the development of a national palliative care program. In November 2005, Romania's Parliament adopted new legislation concerning the medical use of opioids and psychotropic substances to replace the old and restrictive legislation of 1969. The new law and regulations are the result of a four-year project in which governmental authorities collaborated with health care professionals and international experts. ⋯ A national education program to facilitate the implementation of the new legislation has been organized. The training started in November 2006 and will continue throughout 2007. It is anticipated that at least 3,000 doctors and 500 pharmacists will attend these courses.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2007
ReviewRegional palliative care program in Extremadura: an effective public health care model in a sparsely populated region.
The Regional Palliative Care Program in Extremadura (RPCPEx) was created and fully integrated into the Public Health Care System in 2002. The local health care authorities of Extremadura (a large sparsely populated region in the west of Spain with 1,083,897 inhabitants) decided to guarantee palliative care as a basic right, offering maximum coverage, availability, and equity, functioning at all levels of assistance and based on the complexity of the case. The program provides full coverage of the region through a network of eight Palliative Care Teams under the direction of a regional coordinator. ⋯ The provision of palliative care should not be conditioned by the patient's geographical location, his or her condition or disease or on the ability to pay, but on need alone. This model has successfully implemented palliative care in a region that offered many challenges, including limited resources and a disperse population in a geographically extensive region. These variables are also common in many rural areas in developing countries and the regional palliative care program offers a flexible approach that can be adapted to the needs and resources in different settings and countries in the world.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2007
ReviewThe Asia Pacific hospice Palliative Care Network: supporting individuals and developing organizations.
The Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network is a network of individuals and organizations involved in hospice and palliative care in Asia and the Pacific. It currently has 938 members in 28 countries, of whom 793 are individual members and 145 are organizations. ⋯ Education and training is provided through the services of faculty from countries with better developed palliative care services. A diploma course has also been developed in response to regional needs.
-
Good policies lay the groundwork for an effective health care system and society. They facilitate the implementation of palliative care programs aimed at providing care for all people in need of these services, and they ensure equitable access to affordable medications and therapies. The lack of good policies can lead to unnecessary suffering and costs for patients, families, and society. ⋯ Ideally, palliative care is incorporated as a priority within all aspects of each country's national health plan, so that all patients living with or dying from any chronic disease may have their suffering relieved, including children and the elderly. To this end, policies that address essential medicines must include a list of palliative care medications. Supplies of affordable, generic medications that are "equally efficient" must be adequate and available throughout the country wherever patients live (especially opioids for pain control).