Modernized System for Prescribing Strong Medicines Seen as Breakthrough in Mexico Human Rights Watch
go to original June 16, 2015

A 70-year-old patient with melanoma passed away at the palliative care unit at the National Cancer Institute in Mexico City, Mexico on August 28, 2014. His daughter brought him in earlier that day, after traveling with her father for hours because palliative care was not available close to their home. (Ed Kashi/Human Rights Watch)

Mexico's introduction of a new system for prescribing and dispensing strong prescription pain medicines will significantly improve health care for people with advanced illnesses, says Human Rights Watch.

“This is very good news for patients and their families,” said Diederik Lohman, associate health director at Human Rights Watch. “It will significantly improve access to essential medicines that have been unavailable to tens of thousands of people who have been suffering unnecessarily.”

Needless Suffering in Mexico (HumanRightsWatch)

Estimates by the World Health Organization and the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance suggest that more than half of the 600,000 people who die every year in Mexico require palliative care, frequently including treatment of significant pain.

The new system allows physicians to download from a secure website special prescriptions with bar codes required for prescribing opioid pain killers. It also introduces electronic record keeping for pharmacies.

Read the rest at Human Rights Watch

Helping Mexico's Terminally Ill to 'Live Well' (BBC/Robart Jackson)

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