Every year in Serbia around 20,000 patients die from cancer, 33.4% die in hospitals, while for the others there is no relevant data.
Palliative care is still available to a small number of patients.
On the occasion of the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Celebration, Dr. Natasa Milicevic from BELhospice gave a lecture at the International fair of Medicine on the subject “Palliative care: Hidden patients”.
This year, World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is celebrated worldwide on the October 10th. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness. Dr Natasa Milicevic from BELhospice center says that it was estimated that 80% of cancer patients need palliative care during the last year of their life. We should also add to this number family members who are also facing numerous psychosocial and spiritual challenges in those moments. Quality palliative care would help worldwide approximately 100 million people, and in Serbia around 16,000 cancer patients and members of their families.
In the last couple of years a lot has been done on the development of palliative care in Serbia, however it is still available only to a limited number of patients, and both professionals and general public still don’t have it perfectly clear what palliative care really is and how it can help improve the quality of life for patients and their families.
BELhospice would like to remind that celebrating the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is important for raising awareness about the need for providing palliative care to cancer patients, and that this is a problem of entire society and not only of Ministry of Health and competent institutions.
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