About Problems of Palliative Care

Abstract

The palliative care is determined as "a complex of medical interventions targeted to deliverance from pain and relief of other severe manifestations of disease, for improving quality of life of terminally ill citizens" (Art. 36 of the Federal Law of 21.11.2011 № 323FZ) on the stage of uncontrolled progression of disease. The actual status and accessibility of palliative care was analyzed, including development of this issue in both the Russian Federation and number of foreign countries. According to the WHO, in Russia, 360-460 out of 100,000 population need palliative care. Out of them, 200 individuals with oncologic diseases, 150 individuals with non-malignant diseases and 12 individuals with AIDS/HIV. The health authorities face the task of significant increasing of scope of palliative care to make it more accessible. In recent years, issues of palliative care were intensively considered at the level of patients, of public organizations and legislators, as well as at the level of physicians, the Ministry of Health Care officials and others. Despite the great attention of researchers to issues of palliative care, the majority of physicians confirm its low accessibility to patients, as testify the results of survey of health workers carried out by the Foundation of Independent Monitoring of Medical Services "Zdorovie". The article also considers issues of normative base regulating palliative care provision and application of narcotic analgesics. The analysis of study results permits to conclude that despite considerable attention to palliative care, the issue of its accessibility continoue to be very actual.