Hospital da Luz Lisboa was the first in the private sector, in Portugal, to have a Unit of Palliative and Continuing Care (UCCP) with inpatient capacity , a “visionary” project now celebrating 15 years . “We are successful, because we are committed to help vulnerable people living with quality. What motivates us is knowing that this work is meaningful, that we perform a humanized medicine and, even if not oriented for cure, a scientifically very rigorous medicine, of great proximity to patients. I take great pride in the team that was built here. We will continue to innovate and work towards excellence”, states Isabel Galriça Neto , in a special Hospital da Luz Podcast on the backstage of this unit. Isabel Galriça Neto is specialized in General and Family Medicine, with the expertise of Palliative Medicine, area that she has been devoted to for over 25 years. She teaches at the Lisbon Faculty of Medicine and Universidade Católica, was a member of the Portuguese Parliament for 10 years, and president of the Portuguese Association of Palliative Care. She has already taken care of over six thousand patients and respective families. In 2004, she was distinguished by the President of the Republic with the degree of Commander of the Order of Merit, for her work in the area. Listen to the Hospital da Luz Podcast with Isabel Galriça Neto. Google | iTunes | Spotify “What we do is actively intervening and changing the world of these people” Isabel Galriça Neto recalls in this Hospital da Luz Podcast how it was to set up the UCCP in 2007, and what distinguishes it. She dispels a few myths concerning palliative care and she takes the opportunity to thank all those who have worked there over the last 15 years, as well as the Portuguese people, many of them public figures, who have answered positively to the requests of collaboration in the context of projects to support patients. “At the time, it was an intelligent and visionary project viewing to provide care to people with chronic and progressive diseases, and among these those of higher severity and not curable. Visionary, because this is a group of patients that has been growing in the population and in health services, for which, at that point, the answers were virtually non-existent, and still today there is little answer.” “In brief, we had to do what was not yet done – including raising awareness among professionals to the fact that there may be different responses, with a different organization, within a hospital. It was a winning bet.” “Medicine was created to help all patients, whether curable or not. There is a big gap in the answers for those with no cure. And the health services cannot ignore them, first and foremost for the sake of dignity and efficiency.” “To treat these patients better, to give them and their families a higher quality of life, to be dully efficient and adequate and not mismanage the money of all, there have to be palliative care services. Presently, only 30% of the Portuguese population in need get access to palliative care.” “From the moment it is known that there is a progressive and incurable disease, we, shoulder to shoulder with other specialties, but clearly assuming that the cure is not a realistic scenario, are able to help and give more quality of life in the time remaining for those people – which could be years, months or weeks.” “We are not outsiders in Medicine: we use the same tools, the same research, the same medications, in the adequate manner and with specific responses. It is not to help dying, it is rather, independently of the time of life remaining – which could be months, years or weeks –, to give more quality of life to the patients and their families. In fact, in 2021, almost 60% of our patients were discharged from our unit.” “We make the diagnosis of the situation that is causing the patient suffering – knowing that no one suffers merely from the liver, or the bronchi, or the lungs, or the stomach, for it is the person as a whole that suffers. There is a first tool which is the symptomatic control – patients don’t have to be in pain – and, then, we must go beyond.” “We are a team englobing several areas of differentiation. Our action is driven by the needs of the patients. People that are in pain suffer multiple losses (in self-esteem, in their sense of dignity, in their autonomy, etc.). That is why – and this is another distinctive mark of our unit – we work with a team comprising psychologists, physiotherapists, social workers, nurses, pharmacists and physicians from other specialities.” “For us, this is more than a job. It is a commitment to intervene actively and change the world of these people.” The quality and excellence of care provided by Hospital da Luz Lisboa UCCP is also recognized at European level, having been the first unit in the country to obtain certification by the European Society of Medical Oncology ( ESMO ) as unit of excellence. Granted in 2011, this certification as centre of excellence in the provision of care in this area was renewed in 2021, reflecting the work developed by this hospital’s professionals.
