Palliative Care in Pakistan: Current Landscape, Challenges, Progress and the Way Forward

Abstract

Due to a rising global trend in ageing, non-communicable diseases and serious health related sufferings, a dire need for palliative care is emerging. Palliative care not only focuses on relieving suffering and improving management of complex health problems of the patient, it addresses it in the context of family dynamics and social settings making it a quint essential need globally. The greatest need of palliative care as reported in the literature is in the lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) where 78% of the global palliative care needs are. This review article will focus on the development of palliative care in Pakistan, a LMIC.