Current situation of palliative care in Poland

In Poland (38 million inhabitants) every year 90,000 patients die from cancer and 300,000 from other chronic diseases. There are over 500 palliative care units in Poland and over 130 in-patient units (hospital departments or free standing hospices) comprising approximately 1000 beds. There is big discrepancy in distribution of beds between different provinces e.g. in West Pomeranian 1 and in Great Poland over 8 beds per 100,000 inhabitants. Palliative home care is better developed in bigger cities than in rural areas. The availability of home care differs significantly (35% –90%) in different administrative dist…