Quality health services and palliative care: practical approaches and resources to support policy, strategy and practice
Overview
As countries commit to achieving universal health coverage, it is imperative to ensure that the design and delivery of palliative care services place attention on quality of care, with action needed across all domains of quality health services: effectiveness, safety, people-centredness, timeliness, equity, integration and efficiency. Providing compassionate, dignified and people-centred palliative care is an ethical responsibility of health systems.
This document provides a practical resource to
support implementation of sustainable improvements in the quality of palliative
care. It describes approaches to quality policy, strategy and planning for
palliative care programmes and services, presents learning on quality of care
arising from palliative care programmes, and offers considerations on
measurement of quality palliative care services at all levels of the health
system. The document also highlights relevant WHO resources available that further support the development of quality palliative
care services.
The audience for this document is a general one
that includes policy-makers, palliative care service planners, managers,
practitioners and health care providers at all levels.
