Access to palliative medicine in armed conflict: a basic right and an urgent need

Summary

This article in The Lancet looks at the need to prioritise palliative care and medications during armed conflict. The authors argue that the Israel–Hamas conflict amplifies the dire need for access to morphine and other essential palliative care medicines included on WHO's Model Lists of Essential Medicines in order to alleviate serious health-related suffering during humanitarian crises. They outline calls that the global palliative care community has made to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other aid organisations to:

• add adequate oral and injectable morphine and other pain-relieving medicines in humanitarian aid response packages
• ensure adequate essential medicine supplies for surgery and anaesthesia
• provide guidelines on the safe use of essential medicines and their distribution to all aid and health workers
• collaborate with receiving authorities to prevent removal of controlled medicines from emergency kits
• include paediatric essential medicine formulations for children.

They argue that opioids and other essential palliative care medicines equip health workers with the means to relieve serious health-related suffering across clinical scenarios when curative or life-saving interventions are unavailable.