Every year we mark, celebrate, and take the opportunity to advocate for People Living with Palliative Care Needs (PLWPCNs) on every second Saturday of October. This year, World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) will be on Saturday 12 October 2024.
The year 2024 marks 10 years since the World Health Assembly (WHO’s Governing Body) passed the only stand-alone resolution on palliative care, calling for all countries to “strengthen palliative care as a component of comprehensive care throughout the life course.” This is what inspired the theme for 2024.
The theme is, “Ten Years Since the Resolution: How are we doing?”
We will also be celebrating the 20th anniversary of WHPCD. Many milestones have been achieved over the years internationally, regionally, and locally. Palliative care associations, facilities, and institutions have been established over the years. Efforts have been made in different spheres of influence to advocate for the full integration of palliative care services in healthcare systems across the globe. From 2011 to 2017 the number of palliative care services increased from 16,000 to 25,000, caring for 7 million patients but still only about 12% of the need was met.
The mission is far from being accomplished and we have a long way to go to close the “Access Abyss” even as the palliative care advocacy fraternity is doing their part. Every effort big or small has impacted lives and made life easier for PLWPCNs and those affected as care givers, family members, and friends. Every act of kindness that brings a smile or comfort shows that someone’s life matters.
This year, let’s make our voices heard as we hold stakeholders across the health sector accountable asking them to implement the resolution and prioritise palliative care in Universal Health Coverage (UHC). More than 60 million people both adults and children need palliative care services every year with over 80% living in low-middle-income (LMIC’s) countries. WHPCA has estimated that over half of the need for palliative care is being met in high income countries while only 4% of the bigger need is met in LMICs, a continuing and shocking disparity.
There is no need for people to go through unnecessary suffering because of policies that can be changed to address unmet healthcare needs. An unequal supply of pain relief medicine and the unavailability of proper health facilities can derail the efforts to integrate palliative care into healthcare systems.
Thank you once again to each one of you for the campaigns and events held all over the world last year. You made World Day 2023 a success! On 14 October 2023, compassionate communities also showed their solidarity when they came out in numbers.
We had 233 events registered on the global map for palliative care from 76 countries, a record. Let’s make this year bigger and better as we celebrate 20 years of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day! More details will be shared soon and WHPCA is working with WHO on a report on “how we are doing” after these 10 years since the WHA resolution was passed. The resources, logos, and toolkit are available here.
Advocating for Palliative Care to be taken up and made mandatory by the policymakers in Lesotho.
Please send me documents and tools for use in the development of guidelines for training healthcare workers.