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Zagreb - National Palliative Care Day will be observed on May 11, after MPs supported it on Friday at the proposal of the Parliamentary Committee for Health and Social Policy and advocated for the improvement of the palliative care system.
The head of the committee, Renata Sabljar Dračevac, said that the purpose of declaring National Palliative Care Day was to provide support to all those facing an advanced, incurable disease, as well as their families, and to continuously encourage the improvement of the palliative care system.
Sabljar Dračevac also said that data provided by the World Health Organisation show that every year 56.8 million people need palliative care, and 25.7 million are in their last year of life. However, only 14% of people in the world who need such care actually receive it, she warned.
She also stated that there are 363 beds for palliative patients in 29 hospitals in Croatia, of which the most, 89, are in the Varaždin General Hospital.
Sabljar Dračevac said that the involvement of the health and social welfare systems and the entire community at the local and regional level is important in palliative care,, because 80% of palliative patients want to die at home.
"There is a lack of hospice and palliative beds in Croatia, and dying patients are often in acute care units where they cannot receive adequate care," she warned.