Justice
☛ refers to the equitable allocation of health care resources according to need
↳ not according to wealth, class, creed or colour
☛ all patients with active, progressive, far-advanced disease and a short life expectancy, for whom the focus of care is the relief and prevention of suffering and the quality of life, should have access to palliative care
Resource Allocation
☛ some would argue that cure medicine should have priority because it aims to maintain life which may be economically and socially useful and productive
☛ others would argue that palliative care is more important because a society which is not concerned about its incurably ill is not a good society
☛ in many developing countries, the majority of patients are diagnosed with advanced stage disease and/or curative treatments are not available
☛ in some developing countries, expensive chemotherapy drugs and analgesic medications are available, but simple (and affordable) morphine mixture and injections are not
Palliative Care must be prepared
☛ to demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions on quality of life and symptom control and not just on patient satisfaction
☛ to show cost-effectiveness or at least cost parity with alternative forms of care
☛ to demonstrate not only the efficacy but also the efficiency of what it does
↳
Source:
The IAHPC Manual of Palliative Care 3rd Edition
https://web.archive.org/web/20210122105526/https://hospicecare.com/uploads/2013/9/The%20IAHPC%20Manual%20of%20Palliative%20Care%203e.pdf
