Palliative care: pathway in primary health care in Brazil

• Published in: Cadernos de saúde pública 2022, Vol.38 (9)
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, Luis Fernando, Silva, João Felipe Marques da, Cabrera, Marcos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0102-311X; 1678-4464
• DOI: 10.1590/0102-311xen130222

In 2022, an important international report was published on the “value of death” not only in the field of health, but in relation to human societies in general. This report proposed to reimagine systems related to end of life in which death is understood not only as a physiological event but also as a relational and spiritual phenomenon with a value of its own and inseparable from life. It identifies the low priority given by most governments worldwide to the issue of alleviating suffering and supporting bereavement, evidenced by the low investment in palliative care. At the same time, we are witnessing in Brazil changes that threaten the feasibility of palliative care policies in primary health care. The denial of finitude within health systems is reflected in global indicators such as the quality of death index of The Economist magazine, in which Brazil ranks 42nd, the global atlas of palliative care of the World Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance, where Brazil is in level 3b, and the global trends in opioid consumption of International Narcotics Control Board of the World Health Organization, in which opioid consumption in Brazil is in the hundreds of doses per million inhabitants per day. Despite notable advances in the legislative and executive fields with regard to palliative care, the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) and primary health care have suffered important structural setbacks that will impact the design of public policy for palliative care. The goal of this article is to undertake an initial analysis of the impacts of current policies within this context and their repercussions in the construction of a solid policy for palliative care. En 2022 se publicó un importante informe internacional sobre el “valor de la muerte” no solo en el campo de la salud, sino en las sociedades humanas en general. Este informe se propuso reimaginar sistemas relacionados con el fin de la vida en los que la muerte se comprenda no solo como un fenómeno fisiológico, sino también relacional y espiritual, con un valor propio e inseparable de la vida. Se identifica la baja prioridad dada por la mayor parte de los gobiernos en todo el mundo para la cuestión del alivio del sufrimiento y de los cuidados con el duelo, representados por la baja inversión en cuidados paliativos. Al mismo tiempo, asistimos en Brasil a modificaciones amenazadoras a la viabilidad de políticas de cuidados paliativos en la atención básica. La negación de la finitud en el ámbito de