The Department of Palliative Care in Princess Noura Oncology Center in KAMC-WR organized THE SECONED PALLIATIVE CARE CAMPAIGN with the logo (my care is my right) coincided with The World Palliative Care Day on Wednesday 23rd of October 2019, The purpose of the awareness campaign is to highlight the specialization of palliative care and Raise awareness of what the medical team can provide to the patient who suffers from chronic and terminal illness as well as his/her family through the diversity of specialist doctors and specialized nursing staff , in addition of religious and psychological guidance, social welfare, rehabilitation, natural treatment , associations and charitable initiatives.
Dr. Nabil Mouaalamy, Section Head of Palliative Care Department highlighted that palliative care team assessing almost 2000 referral of patients annually among the inpatient and outpatient setting. Cancer patients are the majority of the referral > 90%-95%. And 5-10% of other various cases of chronic and non-cancer diseases Palliative care is defined as:
“Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual” (World Health Organization, WHO, 2018). According to the WHO that almost 100 million people in needs for palliative Care service and only 8% of them are accessing that care.
The educational campaign was accompanied by an educational medical exhibition opened by the Executive Director of Medical Services in Health Affairs, Dr. Mohamed Al Zahrani, who accompanied the campaign in the presence of department officials