The FVPRJ organizes a day dedicated to palliative care, where the director of the Centre for the Humanization of Health questions the system of humanization in the last moments of a patient’s life.

The Valencian Foundation Rei Jaume Prizes held the conference on Palliative Care with the coordination and scientific direction of Loreto Peyró, Doctor of Psychology and the presence of Noemí Valtueña, Vice-Dean of Physiotherapy at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University.

The director of the Centro de Humanización de la Salud y Centro Asistencial San Camilo in Tres Cantos, Madrid, José Carlos Bermejo, opened the round of speeches by stating that ‘people die badly in our society’ and emphasized that ‘we need to promote a palliative culture, cultivate knowledge, arts, beliefs, laws, customs and habits that make us make peace and have control of symptoms and spiritual support to face death with dignity’, said the professor at the Ramón Llull University in Barcelona.

Elisa Bañuls, a terminal physiotherapist at the Valencian Institute of Oncology (IVO), also spoke alongside Dr Bermejo, for whom the quality of life of cancer patients is essential in their recovery. For her “oncological rehabilitation is present before, during and after treatment and must prevent the after-effects of treatment”.

Thirdly, the doctor and president of the Valencian Society of Palliative Medicine, Concepción González, spoke, calling for “palliative care not to be offered in the last moments of life but to be given earlier, with quality of life, pain treatment” and advocated “progress in communication, symptom control and emotional support” to improve palliative care for patients. Dr González referred to the five skills to be taken into account: science and competence (training), awareness, understanding, compassion and confidence. And she called for this training to be taught in universities ‘in order to dignify a situation that every human being is going to live through’.

If you want to see a summary of what the day was like with statements from some of the protagonists:

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