2018; Volume 19, No 6, June

IAHPC Membership Matters

The IAHPC is delighted to welcome new Institutional Members, and to introduce them to the membership. This month, we present two who have joined in 2018: Ndi Moyo Palliative Care Trust of Malawi, and our new Lifetime Institutional Member, the National Cancer Center of South Korea.

Introducing: Ndi Moyo Palliative Care Trust

Local Efforts Lead To Palliative Care throughout Malawi

Lucy Kishindo Finch

By Lucy Kishindo Finch, founder, Ndi Moyo

I was driven to start Ndi Moyo by my experience of tending my own sister who was dying from Aids/HIV in 1998; she was in an army hospital and from the next room we could hear the agonized cries of a young soldier dying in excruciating pain because there were no drugs or palliative care available to him. After serving as a volunteer in Hospice Africa Uganda for five years, I returned to my native Malawi, in 2002, and spent a few years offering palliative services in local clinics before I was able to open Ndi Moyo Palliative Care Centre in 2006.

Since then, Ndi Moyo has treated some 1,600 patients with a survival percentage of 50%. Currently, we are seeing almost 400 people regularly, mostly from the local district of Salima, but some from further afield. Over the years we have widened our vision to one of being a beacon of good practice for the whole country, providing good quality training in palliative care.

Free services is a moral imperative

We give an annual five-week course that trains Malawian health professionals to provide palliative care in their own health facilities, which has expanded services from being a rarity to covering many areas. We are currently working on supplementing the course with ongoing support and mentoring, as many are working alone and in facilities unsympathetic to palliative care. As trainers, we have the authority to speak to their employers and advocate that good practices in palliative care be encouraged and supported in that institution.

Free provision of our services to all is central to our vision; we run the center on Christian principles, but not connected to any one denomination or religion. We believe that palliative care is a human right and charging money limits access, which we believe is morally wrong.

The people who most need us are very poor and it is key to our mission that we do not turn anyone away to suffer and die in pain.

Palliative care can take some surprising forms. One child patient’s life was enhanced by a donor’s gift of a longed-for bicycle.

Many recent goals achieved

In recent years, we have achieved many of our aims, including a new clinic building, a borehole to provide fresh water, a medicinal garden, forging links to the Ministry of Health, and securing access to liquid morphine.

We take a holistic view of palliative care, which includes caring for the vulnerable children of our patients, as well as children who are themselves patients, because it eases some of parents’ worries. They know that their dependent children will be able to stay in school. We support 70 children in secondary school with school fees, uniforms, and scholastic materials, and 300 primary school children are supported with school uniforms, development funds, exam fees, and scholastic materials. All children in need are given a blanket, sleeping mat, and mosquito net funded from our Give A Chance vulnerable children program.

Currently we are working on making Ndi Moyo sustainable in the longer term — through local support and funding — so that Ndi Moyo remains a place for Malawians that Malawians have created.

Introducing: National Cancer Center

South Korea’s Designated ‘Central Hospice Center’

By Dr. Yoon Jung Chang, Chief, Hospice & Palliative Care Branch, National Cancer Control Institute

The National Cancer Center (NCC) is a government-funded institution for cancer research and treatment in South Korea. The NCC was established through the National Cancer Act of 2000 and includes a research institute, hospital, National Cancer Control Institute, and Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy.

In August 2017, the NCC was designated as South Korea’s ‘Central Hospice Center’ by the government. The NCC has played, and will continue to play, a crucial role as the national headquarters in the hospice and palliative care system in South Korea.

The Hospice & Palliative Care Branch of the National Cancer Center team.

The NCC’s goal is to improve national health and welfare by reducing the incidence and mortality of cancer through research, patient care, education & training, and support for South Korea’s national cancer control programs. ‘Vision 2020’ is a program that represents the NCC’s goals into the future, where it fights to protect the Korean people from cancer through innovative research, quality medical care, optimal training of cancer experts, and support for national cancer control programs.

The NCC has worked with collaboration and partnership with many other agencies and organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Asian National Cancer Centers Alliance (ANCCA), Asian Pacific Organization for Cancer Prevention (APOCP).

National health insurance launched in 2015

The National Cancer Control Plan of 2003 broadened the scope and responsibilities of NCC and introduced the country’s first national palliative care plan. The NCC has focused on improving the quality of life of patients with a serious or life-threatening disease by preventing or treating symptoms, as well as related psychological, social, and spiritual problems. The NCC manages a wide range of palliative care research, policy development, palliative care specialist education, and public awareness campaigns to improve the outcomes and quality of palliative care. In 2015, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MoHW) launched a hospice national health insurance payment system.

The National Cancer Center complex in South Korea.

New and Renewing Members' List

Read the list of individuals who joined/renewed their membership with IAHPC during the past month.

Membership renewals

New members

See the full list of IAHPC members

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