Primary palliative care: the potential of primary care physicians as providers of palliative care in the community in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Palliative care focuses on improving the quality of life and relieving suffering in patients with progressive chronic illnesses. Palliative care services remain very limited in the Eastern Mediterranean region although the need for them is high and increasing. The World Health Organization has identified the development of palliative care as a regional priority. This review highlights the urgent need to provide such care in the region and proposes that primary care providers in the region are well placed to provide palliative care in their communities. As palliative medicine is not established as a specialty in the region, training and support in palliative care are required to build capacity in end-of-life care and to allow all patients who would benefit from this approach access to it equitably and early in their illness.