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  • Accompany and help patients live with comfort, peace and dignityAccompany and help patients live with comfort, peace and dignity

Overview

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients facing life-threatening or life-limiting illness and their families/carers. It prevents and relieves suffering of the patients through early identification, assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psychosocial or spiritual problems1. A team approach is used in palliative care to support the patients to live as actively as possible until the last moment, and support their families / carers during the process as well as in bereavement.

Palliative care is required by patients who suffer from life-limiting conditions, commonly from cancer and other serious chronic diseases such as kidney failure, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and neurological diseases. There is often a misconception that palliative care means end-of-life (EOL) care and is equal to “giving up”2, and that it is only for patients at the last stage of their illness. On the contrary, palliative care should be provided along with the curative treatment to support the patient at any stage in a serious illness. It aims at relieving the symptoms of both the disease and the treatment, such as pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, depression, etc. In fact, palliative care is most effective when considered early in the course of the illness, which not only improves quality of life for the patients but also reduces unnecessary hospitalisation3. Therefore, palliative care is not limited to end-of-life care, but embraces end-of-life care. It is an integral part of the care continuum.

In Hong Kong, palliative care service is mainly provided by the Hospital Authority under a comprehensive service model for patients and their families including in-patient, consultative service, outpatient, day care and home care services and bereavement service through multi-disciplinary teams of professionals including doctors, nurses, medical social workers, clinical psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, etc. For details, please visit the Hospital Authority Website (www.ha.org.hk) >> Service Guides >> Other Medical Services >> Palliative Care Service:

https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_visitor_index.asp?Content_ID=10096&Lang=ENG&Dimension=100&Parent_ID=10085&Ver=HTML

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Commonly Asked Questions Commonly Asked Questions

Who needs Palliative Care?
  • Palliative care is required by patients who suffer from life-limiting conditions, commonly from cancer and other serious chronic diseases such as kidney failure, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and neurological diseases.

Palliative Care ≠ Giving Up
  • Palliative care is an integral part of the care continuum. It should be provided along with the curative treatment to support the patient at any stage in a serious illness. It aims at relieving the symptoms of both the disease and the treatment, such as pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, depression, etc. In fact, palliative care is most effective when considered early in the course of the illness, which not only improves quality of life for the patients but also reduces unnecessary hospitalisation3.

End-of-life Care?
  • The term end-of-life care is used to describe palliative care delivered at a later stage when patient is approaching end-of-life. Therefore, palliative care is not limited to end-of-life care, but embraces end-of-life care.

How to define the end-of-life phase of a patient?
  • Defining the end-of-life phase of a patient in terms of exact time frame has been difficult. In Hong Kong, the Hospital Authority defines the terminally ill as patients who suffer from advanced, progressive and irreversible disease, and who fail to respond to curative therapy, having a short life expectancy of days, weeks or a few months.

1 World Health Organisation (WHO), WHO Definition of Palliative Care. Available at: www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en

2 Chung, R. et al. (2017). Knowledge, attitudes, and preferences of advance decisicns, end-of-life care, and place of care and death in Hong Kong. A population-based telephone survey of 1067 adults. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association; 18(4):367.e19-367.e27

3 World Health Organisation. Fact Sheet No. 402: Palliative Care.