Palliative cancer care in Middle Eastern countries: accomplishments and challenges

Abstract

The outcome of consecutive training activities can overcome geopolitical instabilities, and yield a genuine change in approach of both regulators, medical administrators, medical staff and the public; as to the important contribution of palliative care services to the welfare of the patient and his/her family.

Implementation of Palliative Care in Palestine: Cultural and Religious Perspectives

“…In addition to the weak healthcare system and the scarcity of resources and unavailability of medications especially opioids, 1,15,22 the Palestinians have additional barriers due to the peculiar political situation since the West Bank and Gaza governed by the Palestinian authority (PA) are still under Israeli occupation.…”

“…6 The INCB reported the average consumption of narcotic drugs in several Middle Eastern countries between 2007-2009, but Palestine was not included. 22 Fadhil and her colleagues reported a small level of opioids consumption (0.384 mg per person) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region compared to the rest of the world (6.24 mg per person). 15 Regarding prescription of medications and especially pain medications and opioid drugs, Palestinian nurses have no privilege in ordering or modifying medications.…”

Setting a Higher Standard in Cancer Care: Isn’ t it Time to Bring about a Change in Cancer Palliation?

“…Significantly, inadequate treatment of acute and chronic pain is an enormous problem the world over, but especially in resource-poor countries: 80% of the world population lacks adequate access to pain treatment [13][14][15][16][17], especially as most cancer patients in the Middle East present with advanced disease [18,19]. The issue of very low opioid consumption in Middle Eastern countries is well known [20][21][22][23][24], with all surveyed countries, except Israel, indicating <10% of the anticipated Adequacy of Consumption Measure (ACM) for opioids (Table 1).…”

Initial experience with delivery of palliative care to terminal cancer patients

“…Therefore, findings in one country cannot be directly applied to another; it is necessary to consider the patient's needs, the resources available, and the PC capacity of the particular country (2,(4)(5)(6).…”