Public

Today is Universal Health Coverage Day, promoted by the World Health Organization.

Palliative care is a fundamental human right and an integral component of Universal Health Coverage. WHPCA has compiled a factsheet you can reference in your advocacy efforts as we continue accelerating access and full integration of palliative care services in the health sector. DOWNLOAD WHPCA Factsheet

Thank you to the POWER FM lunch team for this interview with PALPRAC Chair, Dr Julia Ambler, discussing the lack of availability of morphine. Reminding us that this poses a genuine concern for patients and doctors trying to manage pain.  

This conversation was also highlighted on NEWS 24 – insert below, 

Access to morphine in the South African healthcare sector remains a concern as availability is under pressure. 

Morphine is on the WHO’s List of Essential Medicines and South Africa’s Essential Drugs List. Knysna Sedgefield Hospice, Dr Janet Stanford, said: “We have been facing a human rights crisis for the past three months if we go by the WHO guidelines of a patient’s right to pain relief. Severe pain has a significant impact on quality of life. 

It’s also highly distressing to the patient’s family, carers, and healthcare professionals who have to witness people in pain and not be able to do anything for them and not have an answer for families about when the drug will become available. 

Stanford said the public sector had been particularly hard hit since the morphine was usually the only drug stocked for severe pain relief at public facilities. Morphine is considered an inexpensive drug at an estimated R60 a gram, and a package of Mist Morph syrup contains 10mg or 5ml with a typical dose of 5ml every four hours or as required.

“In the private sector, there are other strong opioids that are available, but they are expensive and are not in a liquid form, so they’re facing the same challenges,” said Stanford.

“A liquid form of the drug is beneficial when people can’t swallow because it causes them more pain and liquid morphine has a rapid onset of action compared with tablets.”

‘National crisis

Dr Margie Venter of non-profit PalPrac (Association of Palliative Care Practitioners of South Africa) said the untenable situation that had unfolded needed to be called out as an “ongoing national crisis”.

“It’s desperate and dire. To allow this suffering to continue without alternatives is not humane,” she added.

Even with Barrs Pharmaceuticals’ response to IPAC that its operations have been restarted, Venter said liquid morphine remained unavailable at the end of September, adding there had also been no communication from the Department of Health on the way forward.

“We have been trying to delve through the supply network to try and find out where the hiccup is – whether it’s a supply issue, whether it’s an issue of non-payment from government, or even if there’s a global shortage, and we cannot get any communication from Barrs or the Department of Health.

We’ve sent enquiries through various channels, and we still don’t have any clarity on the problem. The government has been reticent, which means we don’t know where to focus our attention.

“We can’t plan or start finding solutions, especially in the public sector where there aren’t available alternatives to morphine,” she added.

Venter added that pain management was essential throughout the course of cancer treatment.

“With pain management, some people can function well, maybe even feel strong enough to work, so morphine is not just an end-of-life medication. It’s needed early on as part of cancer pain management.”

Join the PALPRAC team as we discuss Bridget’s journey with grief and the collection of assets that inspired The Grief Handbook and The Grief Course, which offers hope to those that might feel less alone during bereavement.

For more information on Bridget’s book or her incredible advocacy, please visit https://bridgetmcnulty.com/

Join us online on 29 September 2022, 4 – 5 pm

PALPRAC members can attend for FREE of charge, and PALPRAC Guests are charged R50/session to attend. 

Please visit https://bit.ly/3S14u7R to register online and remember, that to qualify for a CPD Certificate, participants must be present for 70% of the webinar. 

If you would like to join PALPRAC as a Member, please visit our PALPRAC website, where you will find more information about our membership categories, member benefits, valuable resources, and upcoming events you can attend for free.

If you’d like to JOIN PALPRAC as a member, please visit https://bit.ly/3lmRtqV or contact us at info@palprac.org. 

Today is National Grief Awareness Day. The death of someone close to us is an event we are all likely to experience. And the grief that comes along with it. For many of us, we don’t know what to do or how to deal with grief – whether it’s our own or the grief of someone we know.

Except, I couldn’t find that book. I could find religious books about death, philosophical books about grief, and texts about grief counselling, but nothing warm, empathetic, and kind. I wanted something easy to read because my mind was foggy. I wanted something kind because life felt so hard. I wanted something that gave me space to express myself – rather than told me how I should be feeling. But I couldn’t find it – so I wrote it.

The Grief Handbook: A guide through the worst days of your life is the book I wished I’d had when my mom died. It’s a collection of all the things I found most helpful when I was grieving – from poems to podcasts to excerpts from books and articles – along with reflections on my grief journey, expert input on things like PTSD and complicated grief, and exercises that might help move through certain emotions. Things like colouring in and journaling, venting, and externalizing grief.

This year, together with two very wise women (artist Clare Louise Thomas of The LOVE Kitchen, and Alignd and Swansong co-founder Shivani Ranchod), I’ve created The Grief Course – an online companion through the grief journey. It’s an online course with zero expectations, self-directed and purely there to provide support and guidance as you move through grief.

My hope, with both The Grief Handbook and The Grief Course, is that others who are grieving can feel less alone. We are all in this together – this messy journey of loving, and losing those we love. Let’s be as kind as we can on the journey.

Bridget McNulty is the author of The Grief Handbook: A guide through the worst days of your life.

Find out more at www.griefhandbook.com  | Find out more about The Grief Course at www.griefcourse.com

PALPRAC is proud to host both PalliCHAT Conversations as well as our PALPRAC Webinars for our members. 

PALPRAC PalliCHAT Conversations* are CPD accredited discussion forums available to our PALPRAC Members free of charge, healthcare professionals are invited to join these informative discussion panels at a fee of R50. The PALPRAC Webinar Series* is available to PALPRAC Members, with a series of palliative care topics covered during the year and a full list of upcoming topics available online.  In addition, all topics are recovered and made available on our membership portal, with webinars available as post-CPD articles whereby members can review webinars in their own time and attain CPD points by completing an online evaluation. 

*All development training is kindly accredited by UKZN and 1 CPD point is offered per hour for our online training.  

For more information on our PALPRAC Webinars and PalliCHAT Conversation or to join PALPRAC please contact info@palprac.org or visit our website www.palprac.org/join-us