We are a non-profit organization advocating and promoting palliative and hospice care in communities where awareness and acceptance of hospice palliative care is still lacking, in areas where such service is underdeveloped and population is under served . Hospice Palliative Care aims to prevent, relieve, treat suffering. With aging society, deteriorated environment, high cancer diagnosis rate, ser
ious chronical disease rate, we have to put focus on hospice palliative care. We are the non-profit organization for promoting palliative and hospice care in areas where such service is underdeveloped . We believe that access to hospice and palliative care is basic human rights. Establishing such care into healthcare system is the responsibility of not only the local government but the society and the people. Our activities are based on the premise that
In China alone where more than 1/5 of world’s population live, an estimated 10 million patients with progressive life-limiting illness do not have access to palliative and hospice care services. This is due to the fact that such services simply do not exist in most of the health care system, which is the result of lack of public awareness and the absence of healthcare system integration with no health care insurance policy support. The quality of death index for China is extremely low in contrast to the country’s rapid economic development and high GDP. What’s more, with China’s fast urbanization and industrialization leading to poor air and water quality, we are seeing a rapidly increasing number of cancer cases in the population. With the low survival rate of these cancer patients, the number of patients in need of palliative and hospice care is astonishing compared to the scarce services available. In addition to cancer that only accounts for 36% deaths from all other terminal illness, such as heart disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke (cerebrovascular diseases), Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza, pneumonia, and nephritis, the estimated total number of patients needing end-of-life care is more than 10 million each year, but it is reported that less than 1% of them received palliative and hospice services. For the patients and family, the time is limited. Compelled to improve end of life care, and reduce unnecessary pain and suffering for these patients across China, HPCA is formally founded Beijing China in summer of 2016, with founding members of individuals and organizations. We attribute this following belief to HospiceUK organization and other leading Hospice organizations in the world, to share the same belief:,
We believe that everyone matters throughout their life right up until they die, and that no one should die in avoidable pain or suffering. We also believe that getting access to palliative and hospice care, including pain and symptom control is basic human rights for every individual facing serious illnesses , for all ages,at any stage of their illness trajectory. We vision that in new future such care would be incorporated into national health care strategies, making it accessible and affordable for all. We aspire to lead, advocate and mobilize social change for improved end-of-life care in China
We work collaboratively with existing and potential providers of palliative and hospice care services to help expand service provision for China’s large population. We also work with governments and policymakers to ensure the optimum policy and regulatory framework exists for the development of palliative care across China. Thanks to many of our founding members and member organizations’ pioneering effort in hospice and palliative care across the regions of China in the past 30 years, services have been provided in various settings: patients’ homes, hospice hospitals, nursing homes, hospice ward in acute hospitals and community healthcare centers, to millions of terminal ill patients and their family. However, we recognize that these accomplishments compared to the huge number of terminal ill patients in a rapidly aging society shows that we have a very long way to go.
