In a blog on the EAPC website, Ali Xhixha, Team Leader of Ryder Albania Association – a non-profit organisation which provides and advocates for palliative care – describes the journey of getting the new legislation passed.
Ali explains: “With the strong support of partners such as the Open Society for Albania, international expert Stephen Connor, the Albanian National Association for Palliative Care, and other care providers we were eventually able to initiate the process for presenting a law for palliative care.
“Every sentence of the draft that the working group had drawn up was discussed in detail and plans were made to include as many benefits as possible for patients and families, and to develop and fund services (including non-governmental organisations).
“We also included plans to implement appropriate palliative care policies, to include palliative care as an integral component of education, to access palliative care, including the need for essential medicines, and to overcome legislative barriers to access opioids, to ensure that palliative care is an integral component of health system plans.”
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