PALPRAC news

It has been just over a year since the 2025 Palliative Care Conference brought palliative care practitioners together in Durban, South Africa, under the theme Revolution. Evolution. Solution. We recently reread the conference snapshot report, kindly compiled and shared by Mundipharma, and found it just as valuable to engage with now as it was then.

Our thanks to Mundipharma for capturing these workshops and presentations so thoughtfully, and for making this resource freely available to the palliative care community.

In the document, you will find:

• Practical, hands-on guidance from workshops covering nutrition, oral care, PEG tubes, pressure care and lymphoedema
• Reflections on ethics, moral resilience and living wills for palliative care teams
• Local and international perspectives, from compassionate communities in Kerala to Ubuntu and the Safari Concept in African palliative care
• Updates on tools and support systems available to South African patients and practitioners, including telehealth, Alignd and Discovery Health’s Epilog

Whether you were there in person or are discovering these insights for the first time, we hope this snapshot sparks reflection on how far our community has come, and where it is headed next.

And speaking of what’s next: rumour has it that planning for the 2027 Palliative Care Conference is already quietly underway. Watch this space.

PALPRAC’s palliative care bursaries are helping to build the workforce South Africa needs. Building palliative care capacity means investing in the people who deliver it. Thanks to the generous support of our donor, PALPRAC has awarded a series of bursaries in 2026. Recipients come from areas with limited access to palliative care. Each one is positioned to lead advocacy and service development in their own community.

Nursing Scholarships: CCPN

For the first time, PALPRAC has extended formal scholarship support to nurses completing the APCC Certificate Course in Palliative Nursing. This year’s recipients are:

• Sr Robyn Greyling (Gauteng, Zazen Respite Care). She hopes to expand access for patients without medical aid, and to mentor young nurses entering the field.
• Sr Ruth Birtwhistle (KwaZulu-Natal, Othandweni Hospice). She brings over a decade of community health experience and is committed to mentoring colleagues in resource-constrained settings.

Postgraduate Diploma in Palliative Medicine: UCT

Three clinicians received partial scholarships this year, each paired with a structured mentorship programme. All three are strengthening services in under-resourced provinces:

• Patrick Molelekwa (Northern Cape). He is working to expand sustainable palliative care services across the public health sector, despite the province’s vast distances.
• Dr Jolene Arries (Western Cape). She is building a functional interdisciplinary team and embedding palliative care into everyday practice.
• Dr Anne Armour (KwaZulu-Natal). She is growing paediatric palliative care and supporting district-level champions.

Applications Now Open: Social Work Bursary

Building on this momentum, PALPRAC has opened applications for the 2026 Social Work Palliative Care Bursary. Six partial bursaries of R3,000 are available, towards approved introductory or psychosocial courses. Applications close 31 October 2026. Early submission is encouraged.

Each of these bursaries reflects PALPRAC’s commitment to a strong, multidisciplinary palliative care workforce. Together, they reach further into the communities that need it most. Congratulations to all our recipients. To prospective social work applicants: we look forward to receiving your applications.

To learn more about palliative care training opportunities in South Africa, visit our Palliative Care Training page.

In February 2026, a few PALPRAC members had the privilege of attending the UCT Excellence in Deceased Donation Course. It was valuable to connect with colleagues committed to learning and, in doing so, strengthening donation practices within our healthcare system.

The interactive, two-day, in-person course covered the legal and ethical framework for deceased donation, donation pathways, the identification of potential donors, certification of death according to neurological or circulatory criteria, and communication skills for approaching families about organ and tissue donation.

A single deceased donor can benefit up to 60 people through tissue donation and seven through organ donation. In a context where donation rates remain low, there is a real opportunity for palliative care practitioners to contribute meaningfully as part of multidisciplinary teams.

Dr Frances Erasmus’s key takeaway was the GIVE acronym, which highlights clinical triggers for possible brain death. These include patients who have a Glasgow Coma Scale score below 5, are intubated and ventilated, and for whom end-of-life care is being considered.

Dr Leanne Reddy particularly valued the checklist used to assist with brain-death certification. It systematically guides clinicians through the required prerequisites and neurological examination, helping to ensure that the process is thorough and safe. The checklist aligns closely with the South African Guidelines on the Determination of Death (2021), which provide a comprehensive framework for certifying death according to neurological or circulatory criteria and can be read here.

The course will be offered again at UCT in May and October, and in Johannesburg in August. It is well worth attending.

For more information, email OrganDonation@uct.ac.za

On 11 October 2025, the world will come together to mark World Hospice & Palliative Care Day (WHPCD). This year’s theme says it all: “Achieving the Promise: Universal Access to Palliative Care.”  And what better way to honour that than by making learning more accessible?  To celebrate, PALPRAC is offering 50% off all our authored courses on EMGuidance Academy – from now until Saturday 11 October.  The special is open to everyone in the healthcare space, not just PALPRAC members. And here’s the best part: once you’ve bought a course, you can complete it in your own time, at your own pace.
📢 Spread the word – the more healthcare professionals who upskill in palliative care, the more patients and families stand to benefit.

Why this matters

At PALPRAC, we believe that every healthcare provider should have access to practical, evidence-based learning. Education is a vital step toward making palliative care available to all who need it.

Our growing library of online courses supports clinicians in developing confidence and skills for the real-world challenges they face when caring for patients with life-limiting illness. By investing in knowledge, we’re investing in the promise of universal access to palliative care.

Key Details

🔑 Discount valid from now until 11 October 2025
💻 Discount Coupon: WHPC2025
🌍 Open to all medical professionals (not just PALPRAC members)
🕒 Buy in the next week – complete anytime (access doesn’t expire)

Courses currently available

All courses are authored by South African palliative care experts and CPD-accredited.  Keep an eye out for course bundle options, which will be released shortly.  Find all the course links on our website’s training page.

• Prescribing Oral Morphine in Palliative Care – safe, effective morphine prescribing to manage pain (3 CPDs)
• Optimising Cancer Pain Management: A Guide to using Non-Morphine Opioids – broadening options for complex pain scenarios (3 CPDs)
• Neuropathic Pain: Identification, Assessment and Treatment (3 CPDs)
• Gastro-intestinal Complaints in Palliative Care — Nausea & Vomiting and Constipation (3 CPDs)
• Cancer Pain: Assessing, Managing, and Understanding Total Pain (3 CPDs)
• Oncology & Palliative Care Emergencies – PalliCHAT#5 2025 webinar recording (1 CPD)

Looking Ahead

We’re continuing to grow our course library on EMGuidance Academy, with new modules coming soon on caring for the dying patient, end-of-life conversations around nutrition and hydration, managing delirium and terminal restlessness, addressing fatigue, and the effective management of dyspnoea. Each course is designed to be practical and evidence-based, reflecting PALPRAC’s commitment to quality, collaboration and advocacy.

Join Us

Together, let’s mark World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2025 by making palliative care learning more accessible than ever before.
💙 Use the code WHPC2025 at checkout between now and 11 October and invest in your skills, your patients and the future of care.

From 18 to 21 June 2025, PALPRAC stood alongside APCC and PatchSA as co-hosts of the 2025 South African Palliative Care Conference in Durban. The theme was Revolution. Evolution. Solution. Over 300 healthcare professionals from across the country came together to share, learn and chart the future of palliative care in South Africa.

The conference opened with a full day of preconference workshops on 18 June. Delegates could choose from practical, hands-on sessions. One covered the day-to-day realities of adult palliative care, from symptom and wound management to nutrition and mouth care. Another explored meaning-making and spirituality at the end of life. A particular highlight for us was A Toolkit for Building Moral Resilience, an interactive ethics workshop facilitated by Dr Heidi Matisonn. It gave delegates the chance to practise and sharpen their ethical arguing skills.

The main programme blended international expertise, South African leadership and deeply personal stories from the field. Streams covered the management of treatment-resistant and complex pain, integrating palliative care into the ICU setting, and strengthening home-based palliative care. A dedicated stream also addressed the law, ethics and shared decision-making in children’s palliative care.

Several sessions stood out for us. Dr Suresh Kumar shared learnings from Kerala’s Compassionate Communities model, with plenty of lessons we can adopt locally. Nokulinda Mkhize’s talk on Ubuntu as a principle for informed palliative care was a real eye-opener. Dr Christian Ntizimira joined virtually to present The Safari Concept, an African framework for end-of-life care. It’s always a pleasure to connect with him. Dr Julia Ambler also spoke on the importance of compassionate self-care in preventing burnout.

A defining moment of the conference was the signing of the Durban Declaration of Palliative Care. It is a strong collective call for awareness, integration, education, access and innovation in palliative care. The declaration affirms that palliative care is a right for adults and children alike, and that it belongs at every level of the state healthcare system, not only with NGOs. It was co-signed by PALPRAC, APCC and PatchSA as the three organising organisations.

The conference also gave PALPRAC the perfect opportunity to hold our Annual General Meeting in person. It was a valuable moment to connect with members face-to-face and reflect on the work achieved over the past year.

We were fortunate to benefit from the generous support of the International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care (IAHPC), whose funding allowed several colleagues to attend the conference.

As PALPRAC, we are proud of the role we played in organising this pivotal event. We remain committed to carrying its momentum forward.

The National Department of Health hosted a national palliative care workshop on the 14th  May 2025 in Tswane to review the National Policy Framework and Strategy on Palliative Care, which lapsed in 2022. Palliative care colleagues from across the country engaged in robust discussions to ensure that access to palliative care for all continues to grow in South Africa. Many PALPRAC members attended and contributed actively to the workshop.

Some of the challenges and opportunities discussed included:

• Developing strong leadership to guide the rollout of palliative care over the next five years
• Establishing the cost of palliative care in the public health sector and securing adequate, sustainable funding for it
• Actively training healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and community healthcare workers, on palliative care at all levels of the health system

Further work will be required to complete the review of the framework, after which the next steps will be costing and implementation. PALPRAC will continue to support Dr Busisiwe Ndlovu, Director for Non-Communicable Diseases at the NDoH, in the completion of this project.

The UCT Summer School is an annual initiative by the University of Cape Town (UCT) that brings together members of the public for intellectually stimulating lectures across a variety of disciplines. This much-anticipated event aims to make academic knowledge accessible to everyone, offering a platform for learning and discussion.

One of this year’s highlights was a lecture titled “Palliative Care: A Fundamental Aspect of Universal Health Coverage,” presented by Professors Liz Gwyther and René Krause. The session shed light on the critical role of palliative care in healthcare systems, emphasising its significance in achieving universal health coverage.

In addition, PALPRAC (The Association of Palliative Care Practitioners of South Africa) and the Groote Schuur Palliative Care Service were invited to set up a stand in the venue foyer. This provided an excellent opportunity to connect with attendees, share resources, and raise awareness about palliative care. The stand facilitated meaningful interactions with the community and allowed healthcare professionals to network and exchange ideas.

A special thanks to Dr Melodie Wessels for her advocacy and dedication to palliative care, ensuring its inclusion in platforms like the UCT Summer School.

The PALPRAC team was excited to head to Polokwane for a Palliative Care Awareness Day, hosted on the 5th of December 2024 in partnership with the Limpopo Department of Health. This event brought together participants from all corners of the province, with some travelling from as far as Groblersdal to join the occasion. Participants were enthusiastic and friendly, setting the tone for an impactful day. (We must admit, the PALPRAC team gave themselves a little pat on the back for the smooth rollout of our new GlueUp electronic registration process!)

It was obvious that a solid foundation for palliative care had already been established in the region. Prof. Gert Markinowitz, Dr Thamba Khangale and the team have been successfully running online palliative care training sessions for healthcare professionals in Limpopo, many of whom were present at the event. Adding a splash of inspiration to the day were the vibrant t-shirts designed by Dr Rapudi Morifi, Clinical Manager of Polokwane Provincial Hospital, featuring the slogan: “We cannot change the outcome, but we can affect the journey.” Worn proudly by the team, these t-shirts effectively create awareness for palliative care in their place of work.

The turnout was encouraging, with around 72 healthcare professionals attending. Despite a packed schedule of lectures, the hall stayed full until the very end—perhaps the superb lunch helped keep everyone going!

The agenda featured expert-led discussions on essential topics, including pain management, advance care planning and ethical decision-making in palliative care. During the Q&A sessions, attendees opened up about the challenges they face in the field, including the lack of awareness about palliative care among colleagues, patients, and families, which often leads to late or missed referrals. Access to oral morphine was highlighted as another significant challenge requiring urgent attention.

Despite these hurdles, attendees displayed a strong commitment to improving palliative care services in the region. Their collaborative efforts and clinical leadership continue to advance access to care for patients in Limpopo, even in the face of resource constraints.

Palliative care isn’t rocket science, but it is complex, focusing at its core on providing compassionate support to individuals with serious illnesses. However, it can sometimes feel like an uphill battle within a healthcare system that is so heavily focused on curing diseases. Events like this are instrumental in fostering networks of support, enabling practitioners to exchange ideas and strategies, and reinforcing a sense of shared purpose. The palliative care community’s strength lies in its collaboration, resourcefulness, and dedication to patient-centered care, as this event aptly demonstrated.

The PALPRAC team extends its gratitude to our colleagues in Limpopo for their efforts in organizing this event and to all the attendees for their active participation.

If you’re interested in hosting a similar awareness day in your region, don’t hesitate to reach out to PALPRAC—we’d love to explore how we can work together to make it happen!

Watch this short video of the day’s highlights: