Before the war began, palliative care was pretty basic in Ukraine. The World Health Organization has worked out roughly how many hospice beds ideally a country should have per head of population. Many civilian and military patients from the east where the war is taking place are being shipped westwards. In that house you may find somebody, an 80 year old, who has a broken hip, who is going to die at home from a broken hip in pain. And there is no way to operate. So the palliative team will be going out to give her pain relief and whatever support they can.
Ian Sample talks to Dr Rachel Clarke about her experience working in palliative care in the NHS and now with hospices in Ukraine. She tells him what dying can teach the living, what we can learn from the Covid pandemic, and reveals the anguish and defiance of trying to provide a dignified death in the midst of war. Help support our independent journalism at
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