Launch of a Toolkit to help develop palliative care in primary care
In 2018 at Astana, the World Health Organisation (WHO) resolved that palliative care was a key component of primary care services. Members of the WONCA Special Interest Group in Cancer and Palliative care and the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) have produced an updated Toolkit to help the primary care workforce make palliative care available to all who might benefit.
EAPC primary care information
The Toolkit was launched at the 2019 EAPC conference in Berlin. It was presented at a plenary lecture to the audience of about 3000 delegates who each received a copy. Professor Scott Murray from the University of Edinburgh presented an infographic about the Toolkit and
a short video about how it might be used. Please share this with colleagues. Dr Sabine Gehrke-Beck from WONCA commented on how useful it could be in helping to stimulate the development of national policies, training and services. This development would promote the use of the Toolkit to help people live and die well.
The Toolkit gives practical guidance on the steps required to develop palliative care in primary care and is available free for download.
Download toolkit
The Toolkit is available in English. Please contact
Nicole.Brun@ed.ac.uk for assistance with translating the Toolkit for your country if that would be useful.
Further presentations and discussions about the use of the Toolkit and how it may be applied will be part of the Primary Palliative Care workshop at WONCA Europe 2020 in Berlin and WONCA World 2020 in Abu Dhabi.
Dr Alan Barnard, Co-Chair, WONCA SIG in Cancer and Palliative Care, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa,