Sue and Jamie Mumford attended the 8th International African Palliative Care Association conference in Gaborone, Botswana in September. Two colleagues from Hospice Ethiopia, Executive Director Ephrem Abathun and Programme Manager Wengel Yared joined them there. Dr Nuhamin Tekle from Ethiopia attended as did Professor Nicola Ayers (who has worked as a voluntary advisor to the Ethiopian government over the past few years).
Speakers at this 3 day conference came from across Africa and beyond; presentations described the delivery of palliative care services in a wide range of settings, often in very challenging environments for example Dr Germanus Nathuhwera described setting up a roadside outreach programme in Northern Uganda to provide palliative care to the estimated 1.9 million refugees living in camps there.
Prof Julia Downing from UK delivered a presentation on behalf of the ICPCN (International Children’s Palliative Care Network) about palliative care for children in Africa. 52% (11million) of children in the world who need palliative care are in Africa. Many suffer as they have no access to palliative care. Despite recommendations made in 2010 advocating for palliative care services for children to be established, progress has been slow. In Ethiopia, there is no such service at present. However, Hospice Ethiopia is working towards rectifying this: 2 nurses and a doctor are undertaking online training, and a new children’s palliative care service will be established in 2026.
Sue was privileged to be able to give a presentation on the audit of symptoms experienced by the patients registered with Hospice Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. Our colleagues from Hospice Ethiopia gave an important poster presentation about their programme to train religious leaders in Ethiopia in the ethos of palliative care; this is still a little-known discipline in Ethiopia.
As well as hearing the thought-provoking and inspiring presentations, the conference provided the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and meet new colleagues working in palliative care from across Africa. It was good to see Dr Nuhamin Tekle, family physician and palliative care adviser to the Ethiopian Ministry of Health who gave a presentation about her PhD project to develop a mobile phone app to improve access to palliative care for people across Ethiopia. The app empowers community health workers to make decisions about how to manage their patients’ symptoms. She was shortlisted for an APCA Africa-wide innovation award and received 3rd prize.
The conference was filled with energy and passion throughout the sessions. Key messages from it were the importance of collaboration and learning from others. One of the essential factors in developing palliative care services is the involvement and commitment from governments to develop policies and provide budgets to enable palliative care to be integrated into universal health coverage. Another key message is that new and developing digital technologies will aid patient access to palliative care. High-tech technologies will improve the low-tech discipline of palliative care. The procurement, supply, and access of essential medicines in palliative care remains a huge issue across the African continent.
Photo from the conference; left to right: Nicola Ayers, Nuhamin Tekle, Wengil Yared, Ephrem Abathun, Jamie Mumford, Sue Mumford.
Hospice Ethiopia UK 