Manual for Global Palliative Care monitoring:
How does one measure access to palliative care? The one oft-quoted index, morphine (or equivalent) consumption, is grossly inadequate.
Natalia Arias on behalf of “ATLANTES Research Program: Human Dignity, Advanced Illness and Palliative Care” informs us of the new Brief Manual of Health Indicators for the Monitoring of Global Palliative Care.
Indeed, no such manual of indicators can be perfect. For example, you can check whether the country has a palliative care policy. It would not be easy to find out the level of implementation. One can be glad that a budget allocation has been made, but what if most of the available resources are wasted because of poor accountability or because of poor knowledge or skill base?
However, this is indeed a giant step forward in measuring access to palliative care. Thank you, all at ATLANTES.