Integrated palliative care in Ethiopian hospital

Situation

There is a huge need for quality end of life care worldwide, especially in low and middle income countries, as reported in the Lancet Commission on Palliative Care and Pain Relief, due to a lack of availability of opioids and a profound lack of knowledge about how to prescribe them. HE has already worked with the FMOH to develop national guidelines on palliative care, but the gap with current service provision is very evident; women in particular suffer badly from cancer in Ethiopia.

Solution

HE will target St Paul’s Hospital Oncology and Emergency Departments where palliative care is desperately needed. 50 key personnel will be trained at this large teaching hospital. This follows on from the successful development of an Ethiopian standardised palliative care training course in 2020, developed jointly by HE with the FMOH (Big Give 2020 project). If successful it is hoped this project will be repeated in other public hospitals thereby improving palliative care across Ethiopia.