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Participants discuss the Hot Topic of days three ad four, looking at possible pitfalls and how to avoid them

“When you decide who needs palliative care, it shouldn’t be based on prognosis. In the United States, it is required that two physicians certify that you are likely to die within six months if you want to receive palliative care. This is not a good policy, as we do not have an accurate way to measure when people will end their life. Patients have to give up all curative treatments in order to obtain palliative care as well, but this also is not a good policy. They should be able to make decisions about treatment independently of whether they receive palliative care.”
Stephen Connor
Executive Director, Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance, USA

“The mistake we will be committing unless we are aware of it, is to create walls, not bridges. In the Philippines, there is a trend where the specialists want palliative care to be recognized as a separate specialty and do not want to share skills or tasks with others. We need to be willing to share the knowledge and technology with more people, especially from the grassroots. Because, in the end, it’s not about competing against colleagues from other specialties or among ourselves, but all about making sure that everyone has access to good end of life care.”
Liza Manalo
Head, Section of Hospice and Palliative Care at the Medical City Hospital, Philippines

“In Germany, we have a slightly unusual structure where hospice care and palliative care unit are two different structures with different organizations. The palliative care unit is a part of a hospital where they provide more acute care, whereas hospice is a special care home where people can stay longer. These two work and function alongside each other, but they do not always cooperate closely, and sometimes they even work against each other. This is not helpful when you want to move a topic forward politically in the society. There has to be a joint force.”
Claudia Bausewein
Director, Department for Palliative Medicine at Munich University Hospital, Germany

“The biggest mistake that has been made, especially within Africa, is the inadequate funding of the entire health care system. Currently in Africa, 15% of the national budget goes to the health sector. In Uganda, it’s only 7%. This is not enough to cover every aspect of health care, especially the palliative care side. In addition, palliative specialists should be recognized and remunerated by the health service commission as such, so that they can fully concentrate on palliative care.”
Emmanuel Luyirika
Executive Director, African Palliative Care Association, Uganda

Have an opinion on any of our hot topics this week? Email Salzburg Global Seminar Editor Louise Hallman (lhallman@salzburgglobal.org) with either a short 50-100 word response or a 500-750 word article and we will consider it for publication in the report to be published in early 2017!

Download the full newsletter from Day 3 & 4

The Salzburg Global Seminar session Rethinking Care Toward the End of Life, part of the long-running series Health and Health Care Innovation, is being held in partnership with the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and the Mayo Clinic. Follow online on Twitter with the hashtag #SGShealth.