Palliative care is an approach that improves quality of life for people with life-threatening illnesses by preventing and relieving suffering in physical, psychosocial, and spiritual domains. Palliative medicine is the medical speciality that provides the appropriate medical care for patients with progressive disease.

Palliative care begins at diagnosis, runs alongside disease-directed treatment, and supports families during bereavement. It relies on clear goals of care, sound communication, and team-based practice.

This year’s theme from the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance is ‘Achieving the Promise: Universal Access to Palliative Care’. The message is timely because global estimates suggest about 60 million people, both adults and children, need palliative care annually, with the greatest unmet need in resource-limited settings.

In 2014, Member States adopted a resolution by the World Health Assembly to strengthen palliative care across the life course, with an emphasis on primary care, community, and home-based services. That call falls within the broader universal health coverage agenda, focusing on access and financial protection.

Malaysia’s need for palliative care is rising with population ageing and the burden of non-communicable diseases, which bring pain and significant psychosocial stressors.
Three main challenges include:

1. Access - Many Malaysians still suffer in silence due to low awareness and inequitable access. Services have grown, but gaps remain. There is still an inadequate number of resident palliative medicine specialists and dedicated inpatient units for palliative care services in government hospitals. At the same time, NGO hospices provide most home-based support, with a concentration in urban areas.
2. Integration - Malaysia launched the National Palliative Care Policy and Strategic Plan 2019–2030 to integrate services and close these gaps. There is existing uneven coverage of palliative care in the local context, especially in rural areas. This strategic plan sets a path to equitable, effective, and sustainable care. It aligns with the principles of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and focuses on seven key areas. These include recognising palliative care as part of UHC, identifying patients in need, expanding access to care and essential medicines, establishing networks for continuity, scaling up education, mobilising communities, and setting standards of care.
3. Funding - Implementation requires investment and smart partnerships. Current specific Ministry of Health (MOH) funding is limited, while NGO hospices raise substantial community support. Shared funding via public-rivate partnerships, encouraging community participation, and a national foundation are proposed to sustain the scale-up. Access to essential medicines, especially oral morphine, must be predictable across facilities, alongside clear protocols for community use at the end of life. These policies and supply actions are explicit enablers in the national plan.

In conjunction with World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2025, Malaysia’s National Standards for Palliative Care were launched to ensure high-quality, holistic, and compassionate care for patients and families nationwide. This milestone advances the plan’s quality agenda and supports universal access.

Achieving the promise requires action now. Integrate palliative care into health curricula, expand research and community partnerships, guarantee access to essential medicines, and secure stable funding so it becomes a core part of universal health coverage and a basic service for all.

Dr. Fatimah Ahmad Fauzi
Medical Lecturer, Area of ​​expertise: Public Health
Department of Community Health
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Universiti Putra Malaysia
fatimah_fauzi@upm.edu.my

Date of Input: 10/10/2025 | Updated: 10/10/2025 | nadia_rahman