Palliative care centres in the country have increased from 14 in 2010 to more than 110 currently amid efforts to improve services to terminally ill patient.
Director of programmes at the Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association David Musyoki said the number of the palliative care centres is still low considering the country’s population of more than 50 million and increasing patients.
Musyoki said they are working with health stakeholders, including counties, to ensure palliative care services are offered at all sub-county hospitals for easy access.
“We have so far made very good strides in the improvement of palliative care services for affected patients in all parts of the country but with increasing number of patients we still have much to do working together as healthcare stakeholders,” Musyoki said.
He spoke in Eldoret during a training hosted by KEHPCA for healthcare workers in Uasin Gishu county hospitals involved in handling patients with lung cancer and other life threatening diseases including diabetes and kidney disease.
“The training we are carrying out is to improve the capacity of the healthcare workers so that they can in turn handle in a better way the affected patients, primarily help to improve their quality of life,” Musyoki said.
He said most medical schools train healthcare workers to treat patients but while on duty the medics encounter patients who also need extra care because of their kind of illness.
“We are putting in efforts to ensure the institutions we have especially hospitals have adequate capacity to ensure the affected patients get the care they need even as they suffer from the life threatening diseases,” he said.
Such patients should not be neglected by society as palliative care is a collective responsibility.
Musyoki said health training institutions should include preparation of professionals to handle palliative care.
Jackline Nyongesa, a clinical officer specialising in palliative care at Kimbilio Hospice in Uasin Gishu, said the training by KEHPCA was timely because there was a need to have more professionals to handle palliative care.
“If well trained we can save or prolong the lives of affected patients. As caregivers, we face situations like where families abandon affected patients and they entirely rely on us and the social workers,” she said.
Lilian Okondi, a nurse at Chepkigen health centre in Uasin Gishu, said there was a need for collaboration among stakeholders to sensitise patients of early detection of some of the diseases including cancer.
