Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life
Palliative care, while still a relatively new component to modern healthcare, is increasingly recognised as an essential part of all healthcare systems. Despite this, it is widely acknowledged that there is still inadequate access to hospice and palliative care worldwide, and with an ageing population who are going to be living and dying with more complex conditions, the demand for care is only going to increase.
Now, for the first time, we have a resource that attempts to quantify the need for and availability of palliative care worldwide.
It is important to acknowledge that, while the atlas focuses on the need of patients at the end of life, many more people early in their course of illness, as well as family members and carers, could also benefit from palliative care, and therefore the real need is much greater.
Historically, hospice and palliative care programmes have focused on the needs of cancer patients known to have high symptom burdens. However, the majority of those needing palliative care worldwide suffer from non-malignant conditions, which are defined in this atlas. We hope we can encourage countries to ensure that efforts to expand palliative care include these patients with other life-threatening illnesses who also suffer during their treatment, illness, and end of life.