WE join the world in observing World Hospice and Palliative Care Day today. The term hospice was first applied to specialized care for dying patients in 1967. Rooted in the centuries-old idea of offering a place of shelter and rest or hospitality to weary and sick travelers on a long journey, it has expanded in today’s world to provide humane and compassionate care for people in the last phase of an incurable disease to allow them to live as fully and comfortably as possible. Hospice care seeks to enable patients to continue to lead an alert, pain-free life, and to manage other symptoms so that their last days may be spent with dignity and quality, surrounded by their loved ones.
Hospice care highlights the quality rather the length of life and provides family-centered care involving the patients and their families in making decisions. Care is provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and may be given at home, a hospital, or a nursing home, with family members serving as the main caregivers. Hospitals that treat seriously ill patients often have a hospice program while many nursing homes and other longterm care facilities have small hospice units.
One of the most significant figures in hospice development and palliative care in the Philippines is Dr. Josefina B. Magno who founded the International Hospice Institute and College which later became the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care, which would see the establishment of more than 8,000 hospice and palliative care services in more than a hundred countries. Dr. Magno broke ground in getting the medical profession to understand the need for pain relief and palliative care for terminally ill patients. She envisioned an environment where dying patients could get comfort, care, and spiritual counseling and galvanized people worldwide into action, which resulted in the United States Congress passing the Medicare Hospice Benefits.
There are now more than 20 hospices in the Philippines ranging from small-scale programs to palliative care clinics. Among those are hospices at the Department of Family Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital and the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City. Smaller clinics can be found in Los Baños and as far south as Cagayan de Oro and Busay outside Cebu.
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