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Palliative Care in the News

South Africa Healthcare Funding Still Life

Who Will Pay for Palliative Care in South Africa?

As South Africa revises its National Palliative Care Policy, the challenge is ensuring that policy commitments translate into accessible, adequately funded services. In this Spotlight opinion piece, Motlalentoa Motsoane, CEO of the Association of Palliative Care Centres (APCC), highlights the importance of realistic costing, sustainable funding and effective referral pathways. Without these, the promise of palliative care for all will remain just that – a promise.

Read the full article in Spotlight

A public health system that failed its own palliative care audit

Dr Andrea Mendelsohn, a palliative care doctor working in the public sector, writes about South Africa’s public palliative care system failing a forthcoming World Health Organization audit, and what genuine access to pain relief and family support could look like if that changed. The piece, written in her personal capacity, also touches on the ongoing legal debate around assisted dying, arguing that palliative care access should come first.

Podcast highlights growing access, and remaining gaps, in SA palliative care

In a HASA-sponsored podcast, Dr Lungi Nyathi of value-based care provider Alignd discusses how access to palliative care is growing through private medical schemes, while the public sector remains patchy and trained providers stay scarce, with fewer than 100 palliative care doctors nationally. She also shares that families who use palliative care, even late in an illness, generally describe it as a meaningful source of support.

PALPRAC co-hosts South Africa’s first joint palliative care conference

In this Daily Maverick op-ed, PALPRAC’s Dr Julia Ambler writes with co-organisers from Palliative Care for Children South Africa and the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa about the first national conference bringing the three organisations together. The piece sets out how few South Africans, particularly children, currently have access to palliative care, and argues it should be everyone’s responsibility rather than a specialist field.

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