The Government has been told that its support to palliative care services is crucial for a healthy population. 

According to Dr Anne Merriman, a British palliative care specialist who founded Hospice Africa in Uganda (HAU) in 1993, many people in Uganda and Africa as a whole are dying including at the hands of the doctors due to gaps in palliative health care services.

Dr Anne Merimann founder Hospice Africa Uganda joins graduates in Palliative Care to cut cake during their graduation in Makindye on January 29.

“It is essential to control severe pain. Patients and their relatives are in pain and the majority of our patients are very poor. Majority of the country is under 50 [years of age], only 2% are elderly because most people die too soon. Some die due to lack of palliative care,” she said.

She said that Uganda was chosen as a model for palliative care because it was just out of war and the people were so caring for each other.

Merriman made the remarks while addressing journalists shortly after the first-ever graduation of palliative care professionals hosted at Hospice Africa Uganda offices in Makindye Kampala on Monday.

Samula Nasuna receives her certificate from Kevin Colgan Ambassador of Ireland during the Masters and Bachelors of Science in Palliative Care graduation at Hospice Africa Ug.

Fifteen healthcare professionals from Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania, graduated with Masters in palliative health care.

The programme is taught at the Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care in Africa in Kampala, and awarded by Makerere University.

The Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care in Africa is the education arm of Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU).

Since it started delivering learning programmes in palliative care in 2003, the institute has trained hundreds of doctors, nurses and health care professionals at different levels.

The Institute already offers a three-year Bachelors programme in Palliative Care, one-year Diploma and other short courses.

In starting HAU over 30 years ago, Dr Merriman had a vision to spread palliative care throughout the continent of Africa.

Merriman, who is also an outstanding researcher in palliative care, devised the formula for the oral liquid morphine, which is produced on-site at HAU, and distributed free of charge to palliative patients all over the country through the Uganda National Drug Authority (NDA).

The palliative care services in Uganda range from the management of pain and symptom control, social and psychological support, patient and family healthcare education, cancer screening, day care services, food and school education support, provision of antiretroviral therapy, HIV testing, transport assistance and bereavement support.

“Palliative care is not the lowest thing in medicine and that is what they thought when we first came and they were treating us as if we were slaves of the doctors, but now there is respect for palliative care nurses,” she said.

The number of districts in Uganda providing palliative care has risen from 107 in 2022 compared with only 32 in 2009.

She emphasised that whatever the graduates learnt would help people back in their own countries.

“I have been to many of their countries and it is wonderful to see what they are going to do. There is a lot of work back in their home countries,” she said.

The academic registrar of the institute, Dr Nasur Buyinza, congratulated the students on their success, describing the graduation as “a landmark day” in the journey to see palliative care integrated into all health systems in Africa.

“Hospice Africa Uganda is a centre of excellence for palliative care training and service delivery and is a model for the rest of Africa. The Masters programme is very important, especially as it will provide research and evidence around palliative care which has been lacking up to now. The Masters programme will advance this important area,” Buyinza said.

The two-year Masters programme, Buyinza said, was a blend of online and in-person learning.

The graduates who included Germans Natuhwera, Dr Dorothy Olet, Roselight Katusabe and Octavia Nazziwa, expressed gratitude and pledged to offer their best in serving the community as they lit the candle, a practice in medicine studies to show commitment to serve the community.

The chief guest and the Irish Ambassador to Uganda, Kevin Colgan, commended Merriman for devoting her energies to growing palliative care services in Uganda and Africa to save humanity.

“The founder of Hospice Africa Uganda, Dr Anne Merriman, did her medical training in University College Dublin in the 1950s and through those years has retained her strong links with Ireland, her adopted home. We are very proud of her work and dedication and the impact that hospice has had in Uganda and wider Africa on the lives of thousands of critically ill people. We have always been delighted to support the work of hospice. Indeed, one of the clinical buildings was funded by Irish Aid and opened by our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, in 2012,” he said.

He added: “Hospice Africa Uganda celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023 and it is a special honour for me to be here today in the year in which the Irish Embassy in Uganda is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Both Hospice Africa Uganda and the Embassy have grown in those three decades, developing very close ties with Ugandan communities.”

According to World Health Organisation Director General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, every year 57 million people around the world need palliative care but only 14% of those who need palliative care will access it.

On his recent visit to Uganda, he said in Africa, the cancer burden is expected to double in the next two decades.

Tedros congratulated Uganda for its work improving the end of life for seriously ill patients among others through access to free oral liquid morphine for pain management.