Palliative Care: A Future Challenge for the Cuban Health System

Abstract

Palliative care proposes multidimensional attention to the needs of patients with advanced or terminal illness, as well as their families. This group of patients include those with oncological diseases, progressive chronic illnesses as a result of organic insufficiencies and geriatric patients with multiple conditions. In developed countries, it is estimated that 60 per cent of the population will die from one of these causes and therefore require special care. The countries of Latin America are not far from this problem; Cuba among them, with 19 per cent of the population aged 60 years or older, a death rate from non-communicable chronic diseases of 712.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and where malignant tumours already occupy the first cause of mortality. This article argues that despite having a public health system that covers 100 per cent of the population and recognition by administrative structures and decision-makers of the need to plan strategies to face these challenges, these efforts are insufficient. The development of palliative care in Cuba is not only a new challenge but also a moral and material need, inherent to truly social medicine.