Education & Training in Palliative Care

4,428,663 people in year who would have benefited from access to palliative care die in Europe. Among these, 138,913 are children. This equates to 65% of the European population who currently do not have access to palliative care (Dec/2022). Prior to COVID-19, projections outlined that by 2060 an estimated 48 million people will die each year with serious health-related suffering (47% of all deaths globally), and 83% of these deaths will occur in low- and middle-income countries. In higher and upper-middle-income countries, prolonged and more ‘care-intensive deaths’ are predicted due to age-related frailty, multimorbidity, and compromised mental ill-health, requiring more palliative care support. Together with the United Nations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) promotes and facilitates activities to improve palliative care around the world. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” and 10 “Reduce inequality within and among countries” of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group call on member states to ‘combat inequalities and discrimination that often underlie the barriers people face in accessing healthcare and other services. Focusing on palliative care, these SDGs call for palliative care strategies, including enabling access to Palliative Care education, to reach the 48 million people worldwide each year who will need this type of support/care.