El Salvador has a new project to attend to its most seriously ill patients: a care facility that attends to patients and their families and trains professionals in palliative care. Mario Lopez Saca, Professor of Palliative Medicine at the José Matías Delgado University in El Salvador, talked about the process in a conference organized by the ATLANTES program of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra.

The care facility will be built in the capital city of San Salvador and the project receives its funding from the Paliamed Foundation. It consists of a group of professionals seeking to "promote palliative care in El Salvador through facilities with a commitment to the training of professionals that work there and to offer care to patients, as well as to the family and caregivers," Lopez Saca, who is also a member of the association, noted.

According to the expert, in El Salvador, NGOs and volunteers frequently collaborate in hospitals. Among them he highlighted a group of volunteers who provide spiritual and existential help in the Benjamin Bloom Children's Hospital, which is "the only hospital serving all children with cancer in the country".  Lopez Saca noted that he has helped open a space for five beds dedicated to palliative care to attend to sick children.

"I dream of an advanced degree in palliative care"

On the other hand, Lopez Saca talked about the challenges facing El Salvador in relation to palliative care. "The Ministry of Health is currently working on a National Palliative Care Plan", he explained. Two more units dedicated to pain and palliative care in two public hospitals will also open. In addition, in 2017, the Dr. Jose Matias Delgado University will include an obligatory class on palliative medicine.

However, this medical discipline is not yet consolidated in the country, López Saca pointed out: "The next challenge is to create training programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels". He noted that El Salvador has well trained professionals in palliative medicine who have received their education in foreign universities, including the University of Navarra. "It is better that, while there is no specialty in the country, students go abroad to study because, upon returning, they will be of more help," he emphasized.

"I dream of a post graduate degree in palliative care, but, for that to happen, care units need to be consolidated," concluded the expert.

Mario Lopez Saca is Professor of Palliative Medicine at the University Jose Matias Delgado in El Salvador. He has been a visiting researcher at the ATLANTES program within the Institute for Culture and Society and he is a member of the Bioethics Association of El Salvador.

Lopez Saca’s presentation was part of a series on “Palliative Care on Three Continents”. organized by the ATLANTES program, the School of Medicine at the University of Navarra and the Navarra Palliative Care Society. The series is happening from September 7 to October 5 at the Navarra College of Physicians to introduce doctors to worldwide palliative care programs.