Situated in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa, Rwanda is a country that shares its borders with four countries: Burundi to the south, Tanzania to the East, Uganda to the North and Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. Rwanda has an estimated population of 11 million living in an area of 26.338km2, a density of 350 inhabitants per km2, and its economy is mainly agrarian resulting in 8,3% of the population living in rural areas.
In 2010, Rwanda also became the first African country to adopt a stand-alone palliative care policy. While some countries have palliative care policies that are inserted as subsections of a national policy for HIV/AIDS, cancer, or other illness, a stand-alone palliative care policy is more effective because the government can focus specifically on palliative care and its development in a variety of disciplines. Rwanda’s policy’s goal is to ensure that all people with life-limiting illnesses in Rwanda will have access to quality palliative care services delivered in an affordable and culturally appropriate manner by 2020.
As a result a team of 8 persons from Rwanda attended the Triennial APCA/HPCA conference at Johannesburg from September 17thto 20th, 2013:
- Mrs Diane Mukasahaha, Executive Director of PCAR (Palliative care Association of Rwanda)
- Dr. Denis Akishuri, Board Vice-Chairman of PCAR
- Dr. Olive Mukeshimana (Kibagabaga Hospital, Kigali city)
- Dr. Jean Luc Nkurikiyimfura (Teaching hospital of Kigali, CHUK)
- Dr. Theoneste Rubanzabigwi (Ruhengeri Hospital, North Province)
- Dr. Vedaste Nkurunziza ( Teaching hospital, south province), Patrick Bukuru (RN, Rwamamagana Hospital, Eastern Province) and
- Dr. Christian Ntizimira (Palliative care Expert and Educator, Kibagabaga Hospital).
The team was given the opportunity to share their experiences about the integration of Palliative care in the Rwanda health system; 2 abstracts were accepted by the scientific committee of APCA on the subject.
Dr. Jean Luc Nkurikiyimfura presented on the “Mapping of morphine consumption at Teaching Hospital, CHUK” as a poster presentation and Dr. Christian Ntizimira presented on “Integration of Multidisciplinary Palliative care team into an Urban district health care system in Rwanda” as both an oral and poster presentation.
The experiences of Rwanda and Swaziland, which also has a standalone palliative care policy, were shared with others delegates. It also encouraged APCA which was central to helping Rwanda adopt its palliative care policies and guidelines. After 5 days, the Rwanda delegates were encouraged to continue the advocacy for a good quality of life of patients with life-threatening and their families, share experiences among colleagues and start to integrate Palliative care in their respective health facilities. Challenges must not be an obstacle but an opportunity to each country to continue to focus of the patients most in need: Drug availability, especially Rwanda which gave a good example of integrated National policy and strategic plan of Palliative care as one of the priority of the Ministry of health.
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