Africa-Press – Cape verde. The number of patients receiving palliative care in Cape Verde has risen from 100 to “more than 700” since 2023, Hugo Ribeiro, one of the Portuguese doctors supporting the formation of teams in the country, told Lusa today.
There was only one palliative care team at Agostinho Neto Hospital, but the service grew to “19 specialized teams, not only on the island of Santiago, but also on the islands of São Vicente and Santo Antão,” he said.
“We are naturally pleased that policymakers are supporting our decision to help develop palliative care, from the most basic training to the most differentiated care,” said the palliative care physician at the Gaia and Espinho Local Health Unit and professor at the Faculties of Medicine in Coimbra and Porto.
The ‘pro bono’ training is made possible through the support of the civic intervention medical group Iniciativa Médica 3M (IM3M), which this month carried out the most recent mission in São Vicente and Santo Antão, aimed at 50 health professionals in each.
It was the third time that the group developed training in pain and palliative care in Cape Verde, after the presences in 2023 and 2024.
With this, more than 300 professionals have already received knowledge, including advanced training, for more specific services, in addition to basic training, which allows, at the base, the referral of beneficiaries.
Ensuring the best quality of life for patients is a priority, which requires multidisciplinary teams, he highlighted.
“On these three islands, Santiago, São Vicente and Santo Antão, the teams are made up of doctors and nurses, social workers and psychologists. We are also very pleased to see that physiotherapists, nutritionists and spiritual assistants are joining these professionals.”
“This is very important because people with multidimensional suffering also need multiprofessional and multidisciplinary responses,” added Hugo Ribeiro.
“Cape Verde is getting closer to the European reality, with an inversion of the age pyramid and with pathologies that also accompany this aging of the population”, he described.
Oncological diseases continue to represent around 50% to 60% of patients treated in palliative care, but there is “an increase in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly dementia and also organ failure, such as heart failure”.
The group of doctors promises to continue the collaboration, at the invitation of the Ministry of Health, predicting that between “2,000 and 3,000 patients will need specialized palliative care every year”.
“We are still far from what we intend to develop in collaboration with Cape Verde, but we are already at a very advanced stage,” he said, adding that he hopes to take the training to other islands.
“We will continue doing these missions: I think that next year we will return to Cape Verde, again at the invitation of the Ministry of Health, to provide training on the island of Fogo – at least that will already be guaranteed”, said Hugo Ribeiro.
The creation of a postgraduate course is also planned, in the next academic year (2025/2026), starting in September, so that Cape Verde can create human capital in this medical field and become self-sufficient.
The initiatives extend to other parts of the African continent.
According to that person in charge, IM3M will also continue the process started this year in Luanda, with the creation of the first palliative care service at the Angolan Institute for Cancer Control.
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