First National Congress on Palliative Care
The First National Congress on palliative care, which was attended by about 300 participants - palliative care specialists from all regions of Ukraine, heads of health care institutions, government officials, clergy, representatives of public and charitable organizations and representatives of 8 countries: Belgium, the USA, Italy, Austria, Poland, Egypt, Russia and Belarus. The organizers of the congress were the All-Ukrainian public organization "Ukrainian League for the Development of Palliative and Hospice Care", the Ministry of Health; the congress was held with the assistance of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, the National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education named after P.L. Shupyk, Institute of Palliative and Hospice Medicine, European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC). Financial support was provided by the International Renaissance Foundation. The President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Health of Ukraine Raisa Bogatyreva greeted us at the beginning of the Congress.
An important component of palliative care is spiritual support. Therefore, it is indicative that the Congress united all religious denominations of Ukraine. His Beatitude Lubomyr Huzar gave an opening speech to the participants, greetings from His Holiness Patriarch of Kyiv and All Russia-Ukraine (KP) Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (K) and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (MP) Volodymyr.
Congress participants discussed and adopted the National Strategy for the Development of Palliative Care until 2022 and the Resolution, which were addressed to the President of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the leaders of the largest political parties.
