A History of Palliative Care in Ethiopia - My Care My Comfort

A reflection by Selamawit Solomon – Palliative Care Lead

On 13^th November, the Federal Ministry of Health and Hospice Ethiopia celebrated World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. The theme was “My Care…My Comfort”.

Palliative Care was started in Ethiopia by Sr Tsigereda Yisafowessen who set up Hospice Ethiopia. Since then, the Federal Ministry of Health has been developing services for the last five and a half years as part of its national plan.

Key stakeholders were invited to this half-day conference to celebrate the progress of palliative care so far in the country. The attendees included Clinical Service Directorate director, Hospice Ethiopia director, palliative care experts, specialty case team leader, regional higher officials, 8 to be model hospitals representatives, ministry clinical service officers, hospice Ethiopia board members and staff.

The aim was to highlight the importance of home-based care, progress in research, discuss best practice and provide details about the next 5-year Federal Ministry of Health Strategic Plan for strengthening palliative care services.

The need for palliative care is increasing and is a huge global issue. To celebrate World Hospice Palliative Care Day a 2^nd edition of the Global Atlas of Palliative Care is now available to download from www.thewhpca.org

Here are some of the milestones of palliative care development in Ethiopia:

2003 Hospice Ethiopia Established
2007 National Pain guideline
2010 NCD strategic Frame work
2011 Local Production of Morphine
2012 Morphine certified
2013 Palliative care online course by Mayo
2015 National NCD strategic action plan
2015 Ethiopian Hospital service transformation guideline
2015 Pain training Module
2016 Palliative care guideline
2016 Pain Free hospital initiatives
2017 Palliative care hubs in Referral hospital
2019/20 Palliative care in HSTP II, palliative care in speciality and subspecialty road map, 5-year palliative care strategic plan, palliative care manual and pain management guideline