About 3,600 people in Armenia need daily palliative care
11.10.2013,
16:25
About 3,600 people in Armenia need daily palliative care, Hrant Karapetyam, head of the National Palliative Care Center of the National Cancer Center, told reporters today.
YEREVAN, October 11. / ARKA /. About 3,600 people in Armenia need daily palliative care, Hrant Karapetyam, head of the National Palliative Care Center of the National Cancer Center, told reporters today.
Armenia has now four pilot palliative care centers, which can treat up to 15 people a month. Two of them are located in medical institutions of Yerevan and the other two are in Ararat and Lori regions. In addition, the National Cancer Centre has a palliative care center, which was able to treat only 57 people in one year.
These centers were opened in March this year as part of palliative care concept developed in 2012. The centers will conduct various studies for 12 months and the findings will be used by experts to develop specific proposals for government funding. To date, a day’s palliative care is worth 20 thousand drams (about $50).
Besides, a parliamentary committee on health, maternity and childhood issues is elaborating a bill on narcotic, psychotropic and psychedelic drugs, which was approved in the first reading , which provides a clear description of the mechanisms doctors should be guided by in prescribing opioid analgesics .
According to Suren Krmoyan from the health ministry, the bill has two objectives: to simplify the procedure for giving the sick people strong painkillers to rule out possibility of illicit drug trafficking, and the protection of doctors, prescribing these medications.
October 12 is World Day of Hospice and Palliative Care. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness—whatever the diagnosis. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Palliative care treats people suffering from serious and chronic illnesses such as cancer, cardiac disease such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , kidney failure, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and many more. .-0-
