The international organization Human Rights Watch is carrying out an action, focused on persuading the Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Minister of Health of Ukraine to ensure accessibility of oral morphine for patients with life-limiting illnesses to ease their suffering
The international organization Human Rights Watch is carrying out an action, focused on persuading the Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Minister of Health of Ukraine to ensure accessibility of oral morphine for patients with life-limiting illnesses to ease their suffering. The action is supported by the Public Health Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Anyone who wants can write an e-mail to Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, Minister of Health of Ukraine Oleksandr Anishchenko and Head of the Ukrainian League for Palliative and Hospice Care Vasyl Knyazevych with a request to allow the use of oral morphine for pain treatment.
Attention!
An e-mail and electronic questionnaire can be sent only in English.
Every year more than 80 000 Ukrainians with advanced cancer suffer from moderate or strong pain. Without having access to pain treatment, such patients are forced to bear pain and suffer and often for many months. Oral morphine, an opioid pain medication, is the key element of the pain treatment system. The medication is effective, safe and inexpensive. Most patients in Ukraine do not have any access at all or have a very limited one to these medications. According to data of the United Nations, the level of accessibility of opioid pain medications in Ukraine “is very insufficient”.
Let us remind that recently Human Rights Watch made public the report “Uncontrolled Pain: Ukraine’s Obligation to Ensure Evidence-Based Palliative Care”, which stated the main obstacles on the path of introduction of proper pain treatment in Ukraine.
Contact information: Public Health Program, Kseniya Shapoval, (+38 044) 461 97 09, shapoval@irf.kiev.ua
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The mission of the Public Health program is to reform public health, to improve public health through support of new approaches to solution of urgent public health problems, in particular, by introduction of a complex model of protection of the rights of patients, palliative care, and support to people living with HIV/AIDS and non-medical drug use.
