SINGAPORE is ranked 18th among countries worldwide when it comes
to the quality of death.
Among Asian countries, it emerged second - after Taiwan, which
took the 14th spot in the overall first-ever global Quality of
Death Index, with economic giant Japan, falling to 23rd spot.
The index by The Economist Intelligence Unit was commissioned by
Singapore's Lien Foundation in October last year.
It measures the current situation for end-of-life care services
across 40 countries and ranks them based on four broad categories -
basic healthcare environment, availability, cost and quality of
end-of-life care.
Topping the table was Britain, which led the way in terms of its
hospice care network and policies on end-of-life care. Trailing at
the bottom was India.
Experts involved in the study said while factors such as
training doctors in palliative care, level of doctor-patient
transparency and accreditation for care providers put Singapore in
good stead, it slipped in having a good basic end-of-life
healthcare environment.
The study also showed prosperity of a country does not equate to
better end-of-life care, and such observation was borne out by
Singapore.
-- ST
