"The country has 202 beds for palliative care; of these, only ten are located in the Algarve. These are at the Palliative Care Unit of the Hospital de Portimão" claimed the Left Bloc today, which in April questioned the Government about plans to close even this one small unit.
In a response released only this week, the government said that the Palliative Care Unit will remain in Portimão, but also admitted that there is a lack of palliative care beds in the Algarve.
"The board of the Regional Health Authority for the Algarve believes that the current Palliative Care Unit at the Hospital de Portimão is indispensable and considers it necessary to increase the capacity of palliative care in the region," reads the weak, late and unconvincing response to a serious set of observations on one of the main gaps in the Algarve's healthcare provision.
The Ministry of Health answered the Left Bloc’s questions by noting that it is 'developing the procedures' for getting the money together so that there is no interruption in palliative care.
This response was hardly adequate for the Left Bloc, which asked whether the unit will be contracted out and exactly when more beds will be available.
"Clarification is needed as to whether this 'grant programme contract' aims to maintain the Palliative Care Unit in the public sector or whether we are dealing with a process of granting a contract to the private or social sector," stated the Left Bloc, stressing that up until now "there has been a clear choice by the government for delivery of the development of the National Network of Continuous Care in the private sector, to the detriment of the public sector."
"For this reason, there are more beds in the private for-profit sector (23.2%) than in the public sector (8.4%); private social solidarity institutions represent the majority of contracted beds, representing 68.5%," said the Lef Bloc, wishing only that the government says what it is doing and when, rather than continuing its trademark delaying tactics to the detriment of the Algarve’s very sick and dying residents.
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Definition: Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
Palliative care:
- provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
- affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
- intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
- integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
- offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
- offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement;
- uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
- will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
- is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.
