Volodymyr Martyniuk: Palliative care and palliative care cannot be separated

Caring for terminally ill children combines both palliative care and palliative care, which are inextricably linked to each other. And the artificial separation of these components between different ministries is unacceptable. This was stated during the meeting of the Board of the NGO "Ukrainian League for the Development of Palliative and Hospice Care" of the Sub-Department of Child Neurology and Medical and Social Rehabilitation of the P. L. Shupyk National Academy of Medical Sciences  , Director of the  "Ukrainian Medical Center for the Rehabilitation of Children with Organic Damage to the Nervous System of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine"  Volodymyr Martyniuk

"Palliative care includes 2 components: palliative care and palliative care. And it is impossible for one ministry to be responsible for one thing, and another for another. When a child is given a difficult diagnosis with a life expectancy of several years, at first the child is actively treated by medicine, but then its percentage will decrease, and palliative care will increase. And it is difficult to call this care exclusively social, because it is about cleaning the pipes or doing special procedures," said Martyniuk. In addition, according to him, there is a part of assistance that is not talked about in Ukraine - assistance to a family that has already lost a child and needs relief from psychological suffering.

Regarding the regions' needs for palliative care beds and personnel, Martyniuk believes that these figures should be determined by the community: "In civilized countries, it is not the Ministry of Health that determines the amount of funds for the care of a palliative patient, but the community. If we're talking about decentralization, then you can't forcefully lower standards from above. Only when the local authorities of the district, cities themselves determine that they need a palliative service, then the mechanism will start. It won't work otherwise."