My WHA Diary: The enriching experience of being an IAHPC delegate
By Sherin Susan Paul, MD
Public Health Physician, Switzerland
World Health Assembly 2024 (WHA24) will always remain special to me as I had the privilege of attending it as a delegate. For this I need to thank the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC), the non-state actor I represented along with five other delegates from around the world. Participation in such a crucial forum for health policy formulation and governance was really an enriching experience. It was an opportunity to witness first-hand the intense dialogues, conversations, and negotiations happening at a global level that eventually decide the health direction of the world. It also convinced me of the need to highlight palliative care in such venues to guide policymakers in formulating informed decisions.
Following were some of the key highlights for me from the event:
Palliative Advocacy
The most significant role as a delegate was advocating for palliative care. As part of this I helped to draft, then delivered, a one-minute statement for agenda item 13.4 International Governing Body to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The statement read:
“Although the WHO recognizes palliative care as an essential health service, global coverage for patients with health-related suffering is still sub-optimal. Many member states deprioritized palliative care during COVID, increasing patient and family suffering. This caused moral injury and burn out, leading to health worker attrition.
"We suggest:
- adding sustainable access to palliative care in Article 6.
- classifying controlled medications, such as morphine as pandemic-related products.
- including palliative care in the multisectoral body mentioned in Article 17.
- inviting palliative care organizations to the proposed Conference of Parties.
"We urge robust equity and workforce support provisions in the pandemic agreement, recognizing the central role of WHO. IAHPC will support workforce training in palliative care and safe use of controlled medicines.”
Attending Plenary Sessions
A key highlight of WHA24 was plenary sessions featuring high-level discussions on key issues such as climate change, health emergencies, and universal health coverage. It was interesting to note that many discussions underscored the need for incorporating palliative care into broader health policies.
Networking
It also give an opportunity to meet colleagues from sister and like-minded organizations, including the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance, World Council of Churches, and Union for International Cancer Control. These conversations helped in understanding the palliative care needs in diverse health settings and the collaborative efforts being carried out to enhance palliative care delivery globally.
Friendship & camaraderie
Last but definitely not least, the greatest blessing was the opportunity to interact with the other five delegates representing IAHPC. It started with a fun-filled, walk-the-talk event where we held an IAHPC banner, and continued with cheering each other on while reading our respective statements for different agenda items during the meetings: it was a memorable week with lots of fun chat and laughter mixed with serious business.
Considering the intensity and high volume of discussions throughout, it was challenging to track agenda items held at different venues at different times. We managed thanks to guidance by Katherine Pettus, who used her years of experience with WHA to teach us what to anticipate and how to address topics pre-emptively. Though she was not able to be present physically, without her availability online we would not have managed to deliver all of our six statements during the event.
In conclusion, it was a great privilege and honour for me personally to have this opportunity to represent IAHPC at the assembly. It provided an opportunity to advocate for palliative care in a global platform and engage with like-minded professionals. I believe that the statements we delivered will strengthen IAHPC’s efforts to improve access to palliative care services worldwide.
Dr. Paul is a public health physician based in Geneva, Switzerland, with interests and expertise in monitoring and evaluation, ageing policy, palliative medicine, and epidemiology. She has worked as a professor of community medicine and consultant for the Unit of Pain & Palliative Care, Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre in India, as well as having been on the faculty of Community Health at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. Currently she is an adjunct faculty at College of Public Health, Kent State University, Ohio and also works as monitoring and evaluation manager for ReAct Africa.
Read more of this week's issue of Pallinews
Up Close & Personal
Circumstances align caregiving for my sister with glioblastoma & the neuropalliative care course by IAHPC & INPCS. A column by Katherine Pettus.
Volunteers at the Helm
India's largest home care service successfully fosters centers run by volunteers.
Plus
Help Finding a Palliative Care Service Near You IAHPC's Global Directory of Palliative Care Institutions &, in the Asia-Pacific region, APHN's General Palliative Care Service Directory & Paediatric Palliative Care Service Directory. (Your institution isn't listed? Click the appropriate directory link for instructions.)
On Mortality and Meaning, a recent episode of the thoughtful On Being podcast, is a conversation with U.S. surgeon Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (reviewed by Roger Woodruff).
What’s New in the IAHPC Calendar of Events
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