Palliative care in Germany is not the best, according to the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), which is dedicated to promoting palliative care in Europe. The organisation’s new atlas reveals shortcomings. Germany ranks 15th because there are only 1.1 services per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany that can care for people, for example by relieving pain shortly before death. In Germany, there are too few services that can do this; according to the organization, two services per 100,000 inhabitants would be optimal. For comparison: In Switzerland there are 1.4 palliative services per 100,000 people, in Sweden even 1.6; France (1.0) and Denmark (0.9) are even worse off. Even children with life-shortening illnesses do not receive optimal palliative medical care in Europe. In Germany, 40,000 families need palliative care, and every year around 138,000 children die throughout Europe who would also need such care. In 38 European countries, 385 outpatient services, 162 clinics and 133 hospices would be needed to provide good care. The care of family members in a children’s hospice also begins from the diagnosis the child has received. All family members have a claim to it, no matter whether therapies for the life-shortening ill child are still possible or not, explains the managing director of the German Federal Association Children’s Hospice, Sabine Kraft, in a statement on the situation of the children’s hospice facilities nationwide.
