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Facts and indicators on palliative care development in 52 countries of the WHO European region: results of an EAPC task force

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan and Palliative Medicine Unit, Clínica Universitaria, University of Navarra, Pamplona, ccenteno{at}unav.es

David Clark

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan and International Observatory on End of Life Care (IOELC), Lancaster University, Lancaster, Pamplona

Thomas Lynch

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan and International Observatory on End of Life Care (IOELC), Lancaster University, Lancaster

Javier Racafort

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan and Regional Palliative Care Program, Extremadura

David Praill

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Millan and Help the Hospices, London

Liliana De Lima

EEuropean Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan and International Association for Hospices and Palliative Care (IAHPC), Houston

Anthony Greenwood

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan and International Observatory on End of Life Care (IOELC), Lancaster University, Lancaster

Luis Alberto Flores

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan

Simon Brasch

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan and Help the Hospices, London

Amelia Giordano

European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe, Milan

The European Association for Palliative Care Task (EAPC) Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe was created in 2003 and the results of its work are now being reported in full, both here and in several other publications. The objective of the Task Force is to assess the degree of palliative care development in the European Region as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Task Force is a collaboration between EAPC, the International Observatory on End of Life Care, Help the Hospices and the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care. The University of Navarra have collaborated in the dissemination of results and is involved in further developments of this group. Four studies, each with different working methods, made up the study protocol: a literature review, a review of all the existing palliative care directories in Europe, a qualitative `Eurobarometer' survey and a quantitative `Facts Questionnaire' survey. The work of the Task Force covers the entire WHO European Region of 52 countries. In this article we present a comparative study on the development of palliative care in Europe, drawing on all four elements of the study.

Different models of service delivery have been developed and implemented throughout the countries of Europe. For example, in addition to the UK, the countries of Germany, Austria, Poland and Italy have a well-developed and extensive network of hospices. The model for mobile teams or hospital support teams has been adopted in a number of countries, most notably in France. Day Centres are a development that is characteristic of the UK with hundreds of these services currently in operation. The number of beds per million inhabitants ranges between 45—75 beds in the most advanced European countries, to only a few beds in others. Estimates on the number of physicians working full time in palliative care are shown. The countries with the highest development of palliative care in their respective subregions as measured in terms of ratio of services per one million inhabitants are: Western Europe — UK (15); Central and Eastern Europe — Poland (9); Commonwealth of Independent States — Armenia (8). This paper also presents indicators on the development of palliative care based on the bibliometric analysis of scientific journals and on the vitality of the palliative care movement in each country. Palliative Medicine 2007; 21: 463—471

Key Words: development • Europe • health policy • hospice care • palliative care

Palliative Medicine, Vol. 21, No. 6, 463-471 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0269216307081942


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