Travel date: May 1, 2017
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 6th Francophone Palliative Care Initiator's Course
Origin: Dakar, Senegal / Destination: Kampala, Uganda
This training course allowed me to know how Hospice Africa Uganda works: taking care of patients (holistic approach, day care, general organization…) and home visits. I think it is a great organization. It improved my knowledge in palliative care. I learned more about oral morphine: prescription and use, and management of symptoms.
I am part of a team that provides palliative care at home (home based care). The sharing of experiences and the skills acquired during this course, reinforce us in what we do and will enable us to better organize ourselves on the field.
It would be better if it was given earlier to enable the grantee to make all arrangements in time, like booking a flight
Morphine: oral morphine is not accessible for all the patients in need of palliative care. It is only available in three hospitals. There are often stock-outs and children have priority when there are not enough. We want to sensitize the health workers (prescribers) to the prescription of oral morphine so as to have sufficient orders to cover all those who need it. Recently workshops on prescribing opioids have been organized by the National Supply Pharmacy and we believe that things will move. Advocacy: We now have strong arguments to speak to the authorities about the need to promote palliative care training but also the need to define a good strategy for strengthening palliative care in the health system