Palliative care services in Belgium: benefits and shortcomings of a legal framework

All health services dealing with the terminally ill are called upon to disp ense palliative care. We shall, however, be making a distinction between pa lliative care services and other forms of services: in fact, the main activ ity of a palliative care service is palliative medicine, which is dispensed by its trained and experienced personnel. In Belgium, the first specialist palliative care services developed autonomously, and the absence of a plan ning policy isolated them from the rest of the health system. The Belgian h ealth authorities decided to put an end to this situation by legislation: t he laws introduced determine the number, mission and modus operandi of the various palliative care services, as well as the links to be established be tween them (interaction of the home care support team and the mobile functi on in hospitals or institutions for the elderly and association for coopera tion). The following is a presentation and critical analysis of this legisl ation.