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Dubai, UAE: Palliative care remains underdeveloped in the Middle East. A few Arab countries such as Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, and Jordan have limited palliative care services, but most Middle Eastern countries do not have any palliative care at all. Palliative care is a medical approach that focuses on relieving suffering and improving the quality of life of people with serious illness. It is estimated that approximately 60 - 80% of patients in the region who die each year could benefit from receiving palliative care. At this stage, only small fractions of the people who need these services are receiving them. Palliative care is provided by multidisciplinary teams that include physicians, nurses, social workers, and mental health professionals among others. It can be provided at home or in the hospital setting. There are also specialized palliative care hospitals where patients can go to have their pain (or other distressing symptoms) managed. According to Dr Hibah Osman, Medical Director and Executive Director, Balsam Lebanese Center for Palliative Care, Beirut, Lebanon, “Palliative care needs to be further developed in the Middle East. It is a medical specialty that focuses on providing care alongside curative therapies that a patient with a severe illness is receiving. We pay special attention to relieving the suffering of patients and maintaining the best possible quality of life. We encourage patients and their families and help them understand their illness, the treatment and what to expect. In doing so we empower them so they can manage their illness and live well; we try to ensure that patients receive care that is in line with their goals and values.” “The only way to ensure that people who need palliative care have access to it is to have governments actively work on making palliative care and integral part of the health system. This would include training health care workers in palliative care, having insurance coverage for such services, developing national legislation to support palliative care, and insuring that pain medications are available and accessible,” she adds. Dr Hibah Osman will speak at the Public Health Conference at Arab Health Congress, the region’s largest healthcare exhibition and congress, from 26-29 January 2015 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center. Palliative care is applied by treating symptoms such as pain, nausea, vomiting, or shortness of breath. It is also important to address the psychological, social, spiritual and practical sources of suffering that patients and their families’ experience. “Contrary to some misconceptions palliative care is not euthanasia. In palliative care, death is regarded as a natural process. We not seek to hasten death or to delay it. In fact, research has shown that patients who receive palliative care early in the course of their illness actually live longer than patients who do not receive this kind of care,” says Dr Hibah Osman.
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