20-21 September 2002, hotel “Turist”, Chisinau

The main objective of the Memorandum is to obtain palliative care for terminally ill patients. Ethics does not allow suffering. “The society that does not care for its dying people has a vicious philosophy”, Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement and St Christopher’s Hospice in 1967, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

1. National policy

The main objective of the national plicy is to introduce palliative care among the priorities of the health system of the Republic of Moldova. The financial, physical and emotional needs must be adequately compensated by the State.

2. Training

Courses on methods in palliative care must be inlcuded in the educational programmes of students from medical universities and colleges as well as in training programmes of social assistants. It is necessary to elaborate training standards on palliative care  for medical students. Training in palliative care centers abroad is important (for example: “Home of Hope”  (“Casa Speranței”) in Brașov, Romania; The Hospice Foundation (Fundacja Hospicyjna) in Gdańsk, Poland).

3. Ensuring Accessibility of Morphine

The State must ensure accessibility of morphine for the terminally ill. The need of the opioids must be calculated depending on the number of the trained professionals, annual reports and estimates from the experts from the International Narcotics Control Board (Vienna, Austria).

4. Specialised Organ in Palliative Care Services

Creation of a specialised organ in hospice and palliative care services, such as the Polish Committee of Experts in Palliative Care and/or Polish National Council for Hospice and Palliative Care Services (NCHPCS), is important both for the terminally ill and for their families.

5. Information

It is important to include the concept of effeciency and simplification of methods of pain relief by way of information distributed among population, doctors, political activists.

Recommendations: It is necessary to coordinate efforts. Therefore, therei is a necessity of creation  a National Council of Palliative Care in Moldova. Any person interested in palliative care may become a member. This organization must form an active network, be a primary initiator of changes from and with the government, inform the society about palliative care and collaborate with mass media.