How well are we really doing?
India’s poor performance in palliative care has been the subject of much international attention; the New York Times wrote not too long back, and the BBC on 04 May 2016 wrote on the subject. BBC news quotes the Economist’s Quality of Death study which showed the following ranking:
UK 1
Australia 2
New Zealand 3
Belgium 4 and so on.
India came 67th out of 80, way below much poorer countries like Ghana (51st out of 80). Malawi is one step above India.
The magnitude of suffering will be obvious only when we realize that the situation is not too good even in the best! See what Scott Murray has to say about UK in his article “End of Life Care Still Not Living Upto Public and Doctors’ Expectations” in the British Medical Journal, 2016;353:i2188.
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