What is the role of family medicine in providing palliative care in Africa?

Abstract

Although palliative care is known to effectively relieve serious health-related suffering (SHS), it is not yet widely available, particularly in Africa. Primary health care has been recognised as an effective means to enhance access to palliative care and achieve universal health coverage. As family physicians play an important role in the delivery of primary health care, this article seeks to illustrate how the family medicine speciality is contributing to efforts to ensure palliative care services are provided throughout the African continent. The World Health Organization recommends three tiers of training for healthcare providers to enhance competencies in palliative care. This training has played out differently in various African countries. This article focuses on the countries represented by the authors, namely South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan and Ghana. In providing continuous, coordinated, holistic care to patients along the life course, family physicians can anticipate and relieve suffering in a timely manner in ways that no other specialities have been trained to do. We propose that all family physicians’ training programmes in Africa prioritise palliative care training along with other leading clinical areas, to ensure that the significant numbers of people dying from SHS receive holistic care and die with dignity.