Canada ranks below expectations in new global palliative care report

The 2025 World Map of Palliative Care Development, published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, has placed Canada in the “Established” category, 8th in the Americas and 51st globally.
Countries like Uruguay, Costa Rica, Chile, and the U.S. ranked higher under the new WHO framework assessing policy, access to essential medicines, education, research, and community empowerment.

The findings highlight both progress and a warning: while palliative care is embedded in parts of our system, major gaps remain in community-based care, data coordination, policy integration, and sustainable funding, areas where hospice societies play a critical role, like in rural and remote communities.

Hospice societies across BC are already leading the shift toward stronger, community-based care. It’s time for policy and funding to catch up.

As BCHPCA continues to advance the next frontier of hospice palliative care, integrated, community-led, and close to home, we’ll use this global evidence to strengthen our collective call for investment, data coordination, and policy alignment.

Read the study here: FREE REPORT
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