Lawmaker calls for awareness on palliative care

The public should have a better understanding of palliative care and advance healthcare directives, lawmaker Si Ka Lon has said in a parliamentary pre-agenda speech.

In an aging society, besides older adults’ welfare and care and medical advances, the government should also improve social understanding on palliative care and allow advance healthcare directives to be set, the lawmaker said.

Doing so would protect the people’s right to know, privacy and decision-making regarding illness, life and death.

He called for better promotion on how people could pass their final years in dignity and tranquility.

Currently, the two local hospitals provide palliative care services, as well as relief-oriented wards for patients with terminal illnesses or in terminal stages.

Despite this, the lawmaker believes the services are insufficiently promoted, lack support on a policy level and do not cultivate a workforce. Work is needed to meet future demand, the lawmaker suggested.

Si also recommended the introduction of advance healthcare directives, sometimes known as do-not-resuscitate (DNR), to Macau.

In 2019, a government committee on life ethics and science agreed on the necessity of finding ways for an advance healthcare directive system.

In 2021, a medical committee started studying the system’s feasibility. However, the lawmaker said there have been no updates so far.

Citing mainland China, the lawmaker said that as of 2021, the mainland had trialed palliative care services in 91 cities, with more than 1,000 healthcare facilities providing such services.

He added that Hong Kong had also recently created a legal framework for advance healthcare directives and do-not-resuscitate, “showing respect to patients’ rights to choose and improving patients’ quality of life.”

The lawmaker suggested the government make actual and meaningful moves towards realizing palliative care and related services in Macau, including, but not limited to, conducting public consultation.