Palliative care is now provided at home

Palliative care is now provided to patients at home, and the Ministry of Health is monitoring the situation, but notes that it is too early to judge its quality and coverage – this can be done in six months, when data for this period will be compiled, Diena writes.

At that time, the conclusions of the audit of the State Audit Office will be known, but for now the audit is at an early stage. True, shortcomings have already been identified that need to be eliminated, for example, restrictions on diagnoses.

Speaking about progress in this area, senior expert of the Department of Quality of Medical Care of the Ministry of Health Zane Reinholde at a meeting of the Sejm subcommittee on public health said that mobile palliative care teams work in all regions, and consultations are available in large hospitals. In the first two months of this year, 136 consultations were held, and assistance was provided to 254 patients with various diagnoses – tumors, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy.

Director of the Department of Social Services and Disability of the Ministry of Welfare Aldis Dudins supplemented the statistics of the Ministry of Health, noting that by March 31, more than 300 patients had received palliative services, and more than 400 people had received psychosocial support.

As for the 4 million euros allocated for these purposes, the Ministry of Health is “half satisfied” and promises not to stop there, but to develop and improve services. This also applies to children. The Ministry of Health has already begun negotiations with the Children’s Clinical University Hospital on providing palliative care to children, including in the regions.