Receive adequate medical care at the end of life is not a privilege but a real right.

Madrid, November 22, 2010- Before the announcement of the Government of the future adoption of a law of palliative care and death Digna, schoolboy medical organization (WTO) has shown its satisfaction for the implementation of a measure that has been constantly demanding as it is that hospice care is a right recognized equally to all citizens in all the autonomous communities. A law on support of a regulatory framework as it is the law of cohesion and quality of the national health system, of 2003, and with other measures such as the 2007 palliative care strategy.

However, the reality today is marked by inequalities in relation to the level of development of the Hospice in the different autonomous communities, as well as the important differences between the rural and urban areas as well as the characteristics of the patient, especially if it is an adult or pediatric.

The WTO has been constantly stressing the importance of palliative care because they represent a solid health response to the suffering associated with the end of life of patients and because they have become a right of all citizens and a basic health provision. It has been as evident in the conclusions of the II Congress of the medical profession, presented recently, and which constitute the feel of the whole of the structure of the Organization Medical College (boards, vocalías and ethics committees).

Among the 16 major issues they dealt with this important event and on which they surveyed to the highest representatives of the medical profession in order to know the majority of the physicians of our country, stressed, no doubt, of palliative care, four major conclusions were obtained from the theme: a national analysis of the current situation of palliative care in Spain; urge the Administration the review of the legislation on the prescription of opioids; contribute to strengthening the training and specialization the palliative care of medical professionals; and provide information to citizens about their right to palliative care.

Also conducted survey attendees to the Congress on the most burning issues in this area it should be noted that 97.3 per cent of respondents showed agree to consider that aggressive pain treatment is an ethical imperative for the physician and a right for the informed patient. Furthermore, 96.4 per cent expressed the view that all physicians in function of their competence and the need of the patient must pay palliative care to their patients, at the same time as a 99.2 per cent was convinced that the medical schools must defend the establishment of a universal system of palliative care and quality.

The quality of life as a priority

For Organization Medical College there is a clear objective in the care of persons with disease in terminal phase which is to ensure better quality of life, which means: identify, assess and treat pain and other symptoms of early as well as to address their needs, psychosocial and spiritual; make it easier for the patient which can express their emotions and always be heard; establish mechanisms of coordination between all levels of care, promoting and providing that the patient, if desired, can die at his home; promote the autonomy and facilitate their participation in the decision-making process, paying special attention to the advance directives; Finally, recognize the importance of the family and the personal environment of the patient, encouraging their collaboration in the care, and also, to meet the needs of caregivers.

If the trend in European countries feels that palliative medicine is part of the portfolio of national programmes of each State’s health services. The WTO has never been alien to the approach that beyond our borders has been given to this type of medicine, emphasizing, in this sense, their active participation in international forums of such weight as it is the medical World Association (AMM) which has been accepted, recently, for discussion a proposal for a Declaration on care medical at the end of life presented by the WTO at its last General Assembly, held in Vancouver. It is a document that will lay the foundations ethical and professional doctors around the world with regard to health care at the end of life, with consistent and committed human, scientific, and professional aspects.

In short, the WTO wants to take advantage of the announcement by the Government to express its desire to contribute to the momentum of a series of measures on palliative care aims to achieve excellence at the end of life care. So considered, inter alia, essential to matter with the opinion of expert professionals in planning palliative care in health services. In addition, sees fundamental search for agreements among the different scientific societies and different professional bodies concerned, that calculated the needs of health professionals trained in palliative care, and this type of medicine is practiced at all levels of care for which require effective coordination.