The United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, which tied for second place, and Sweden are the most developed European countries when it comes to palliative care. This ranking came from research led by the ATLANTES program at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra.

According to the ranking, Spain is number 11, which represents one of the most noteworthy drops (in 2007 it was in 5th place), along with France (7th to 14th) and Greece (19th to 27th).

To analyze the development of palliative care, researchers compared data from 2007 and 2013. The researchers analyzed the resources available in each country and the field’s vitality, i.e., the number of activists, professionals and associations seeking to promote palliative care. According to the team, this two-variable methodology allows for a simple, but equally reliable analysis of the development of palliative care.

Two Variables: Resources and vitality

Regarding resources, Luxembourg is the most advanced country with a score of 72 out of 84. The United Kingdom (68) and Belgium (66) rank second and third, respectively. For its part, Spain comes in 12th with 49 points, representing a decline since 2007, when it was in 8th place with 57 points.

In both 2007 and 2013, Germany and the UK lead the vitality ranking with a score of 8 out of 8. Spain scored 7 and is in third place with Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland Italy, Netherlands and Romania. Spain is the only country in the third position whose ranking has not changed since 2007.

The researchers that carried out this study are from the ICS’s ATLANTES program, in collaboration with David Clark, from the University of Glasgow, and coordinated by Carlos Centeno, Director of the ATLANTES program and the Palliative Medicine Unit at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

The study was published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, the most important academic journal in the field of palliative care: http://www.jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(16)30141-5/abstract.

Ranking of Palliative Care Development in the Countries of the European Union