Needs of terminally ill, hospitalised patients in Togo: Qualitative study

Purpose: This work aims to document how the end of life is supported by public hospital services in a resource-limited country: Togo. Its objective is to identify the important dimensions of support from the perspective of inpatients and analyse how they perceive the quality of the service that is rendered to them. Patients and methods: A qualitative approach based on interviews was performed in 18 patients suffering from terminal cancer, who had been hospitalized for more than 10 days in two university hospital in Lomé (Togo). Results: The results show that these patients feel marginalized or even excluded from the care system. Psychological distress and physical pain that plague patients do not seem to be a concern of the medical and nursing staff. Conclusion: The lack of initial training in end of life care and health system based on essentially curative approaches are the two key factors in explaining this behaviour of the medical and nursing staff.