HOW TO HELP CANCER PATIENTS IN THE FINAL STAGES OF THE DISEASE?
In Serbia, there are still not enough hospices, specialized hospitals for the care of cancer patients who are in the terminal phase, the last and most difficult stage of the disease!
Doctors diagnose it when they determine that chemotherapy and medications are no longer effective and that the metastases have spread throughout the body.
At this stage, patients suffer great pain, cannot manage on their own, and require the assistance of others. The care of patients in this period is known as palliative care.
Its essence is to ensure that the patient can spend the last period of their life as comfortably as possible, both physically and psychologically.
Verbal Support is Also Important
To achieve this goal, Western countries have hospices, specialized hospitals where teams of medical professionals, including experts from all specialties, as well as psychologists, psychiatrists, and clergy, provide care for cancer patients in the final stages of the disease.
This is a common practice because, for cancer patients in the most severe stage of the illness, verbal support is crucial.
How is it in Our Country?
Instead of opening more hospices due to the alarming number of cancer patients, our country still lacks sufficient facilities.
As a result, only a small number of terminally ill patients are placed in state hospitals and nursing homes, while the majority, unfortunately, remain in their homes.
Family members have to be with them constantly, 24 hours a day. To make matters worse, they are often forced to quit their jobs and sell their property to provide some level of care for the patient.
What Kind of Help Does “Belhospice” Provide?
When it comes to this problem, the situation would be even more dire if it weren’t for the humanitarian organization “Belhospice” in Belgrade, whose mission is to provide palliative care for patients in the terminal stage of cancer.
“Belhospice” activists, doctors of all specialties, visit patients or offer advice to them and their families over the phone, and they do this for free, without any monetary compensation.
“Belhospice” also publishes a magazine on palliative care with support from the British Government, and they have their own hospice. Unfortunately, its capacity is insufficient as it can only accommodate around forty patients.
Apart from “Belhospice,” in Serbia, only one private hospital and two state medical institutions provide palliative care, which is far from enough!
The alarming nature of this problem is evident from the fact that around 40,000 people in Serbia are diagnosed with various types of cancer each year, and 30,000 of them lose their battle against this severe and insidious disease.
Therefore, opening more hospices in Serbia is essential and inevitable if our society wishes to ease the situation at least a little.