In Italy, the average duration of treatment for cancer patients is less than 45 days and only a third of the 590 thousand adults eligible for palliative care actually access it. Even more critical is the pediatric situation where the possibility of accessing regional specialist centers is very uneven throughout Italy: currently the service is provided to less than 3,000 minors compared to more than 10,000 children who need it. Facts that indicate systemic delays: palliative care is often delayed and limited to the last days of life.
This scenario emerged at the 32nd national congress of the Italian Society of Palliative Care (Sicp). The professional community is united in a common goal: to anticipate the care of people and their families from the moment of diagnosis of an incurable pathology and to overcome the vision of palliative care as a “last minute” intervention, moving from a model that centers on the event of death to one that puts the person at the center.
Two regulatory objectives must be translated into practice
2025 – recalls Sicp – marks the completion of the accreditation process of palliative care networks that began with agreement 118/2020 in the Conference of Countries and Territories and the national palliative care networks regulated by law 197/2022 must be completed by 2028. “But there is still a long way to go – he says Gianpaolo Fortinipresident of the scientific society -. We are caught between two goals that speak of responsibility and hope. Deadlines can be walls or doors: it’s up to us to choose. There are still many people who cannot access palliative services. Our job is to oversee change with intelligence, passion and care.”
The importance of early palliative evaluation
Sicp proposes a radical shift in perspective: early palliative evaluation, starting from the diagnosis of incurable disease, expansion of early management to guarantee years of quality of life free from unnecessary suffering, strong and effective hospital-territory integration with flexible pathways built on real needs and not on clinical terminality.
“Early palliative care – remember Flavio Fuscoscientific director of Congress — is not a luxury, but an element of justice and efficiency. They improve the quality of life, reduce unnecessary hospitalizations and direct the network towards truly sustainable and integrated care”. In this perspective, Congress 2025 strengthens the training dimension with international faculty and sessions dedicated to new skills of teams, compared regional models, and cultural and social complexities regarding issues of fragility and incurability.
