57th NGO MEETING – PALLIATIVE CARE
Belgrade, 22 September 2007 – On 20 September, at the Royal Palace, the 57th meeting of national and international agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs), took place, organised by HRH Crown Princess Katherine Foundation with the theme of Palliative Care.
Panel speakers were Dr. Eleine Laycock, Medical Advisor to Lifeline UK, whose patron is HRH Crown Princess Katherine, Dr. Jasmina Savic-Joksimovic, Deputy of City Secretary for Health Care of Belgrade, Dr. Humaira Jamal and Ms. Margaret Gandon, before Michael Sobell House from London, Mr. Graham Perolls, President of Hospice of Hope Organisation from UK, and Dr. Natasa Milicevic before our first organisation which deals solely with palliative care, BELhospice. Also, the guests of HRH Princess Katherine Foundation from the US, Ms. Katthy Fanslow, President of Lifeline Chicago Organisation, Ms. Candice Rosen, President of Board of Directors of Belgrade and Chicago, who addressed the guests in excelent Serbian, and Ms. Sally Brown, President of Ambasadors for Children.
Dr. Laycock spoke about her long term experience in the field of palliative care. Palliative care supports families before, during and after the death of a patient. The first hospices in England started to work in 1967 and they are not geriatric centres. Also Dr. Laycock stated that death is not a medical failure, it is a normal process. In developed countries there is a strong trend to treat the patient to the very end and to provide support to their famillies.
Dr. Jamal relayed her experiences at Michael Sobell House in London, where she worked as an Advisor for palliative care. According to her statement, palliative care is total care of patient and family. Last year Michael Sobell House addmited 323 new patients and in 90% of the cases therapy was administered for symptom control. The average length of stay was 9 days.
Mr. Perolls highlighted his experience in Romania where he first visited in the early 90s, when there was not even one hospice, while there are 25 today.
Dr. Milicevic stated that Serbia has a population of 7.5 million people excluding Kosovo. Belgrade has 2 million inhabitants. 100,000 people die per year, cancer is the second cause of death in Serbia. One third of cancer patients die alone in hospitals. Palliative care is not part of medical and nursing school curriculum. There is no national policy regarding it’s development. There are several pain clinics. There is a lack of medicine. BELhospice was established in 2004. It is the first hospice in Serbia. Its goals are to provide good quality palliative care, to organize education in this field, and to promote the idea and philosophy. It is not easy to promote palliative care in a country where people do not know what it is. A problem is the current legal framework. Also there is a professional misconception. They do not understand that it is not just about a bed and infusion in some hospital. There is poor availability of related medicines. There is low awareness regarding palliative care among the general public. Sometimes doctors do not tell the patients the truth. As a result of transitional circumstances, palliative care can not be a priority since we as a country have so many problems. Funds are limited.
Dr. Savic-Milicevic stated that the problem with palliative care is the lack of funds. It is a good start just to begin talking about this. The city will work on allocating funds. Palliative care is a complex issue and requires team work, a concept that is rather new to us, and requires a lot of financial support.
HRH Crown Princess Katherine highlighted a strong support for adopting a new law on NGOs, which is only one of the prerequisites to a succesful outcome. Based upon many years of experience of HRH in the humanitarian field in Serbia, there have always been efforts between government representatives and NGOs to work together, but the situation has drastically worstened when it comes to large donors who have turned toward other crises worldwide. As a result, NGO representatives must not only demonstrate the problems, but they have to suggest concrete results to relevant government departments, because they have first hand experience in the field. The Foundation of HRH Crown Princess Katherine and Crown Princess Katherine herself will continiously work for the benefit of the most vulnerable categories of our society, and they stand prepared to assist governmental institutions in Serbia and NGOs with their experiences and contacts both nationally and internationally, in order to readily respond to the humanitarian needs that we all face.
Representatives of 54 national and international NGOs and Agencies were present at the Meeting. Presentations were lively, and the participants responded positively to this theme. The next NGO Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 16 October 2007, at 10:00 AM at the White Palace. The Foundation of HRH Crown Princess Katherine will announce the upcoming theme in a timely manner.
