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World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) was established in 2005 and has since become one of palliative care’s most significant global days. Each year a different theme is chosen to emphasise an aspect of palliative care that people may not know about or that is relevant to current events. We’re delighted to be joined today by Dr Stephen R Connor, PhD, Executive Director Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), to tell us more about WHPCD 2025 and its call to action.
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) occurs every second Saturday in October each year. This year marks a significant milestone – the 20th anniversary of WHPCD, a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) coordinates WHPCD for the international palliative care community. For 2025 the theme of Achieving the Promise follows on from the 2024 theme of Ten Years Since the Resolution: How are we doing? Last year we looked back to see what the progress has been and what is still to do. This year we’re looking forward to seeing what a future could look like five to ten years ahead and what is needed to make a world where there is universal access to palliative care.
New research from the Lancet Commission now estimates that globally there are over 73 million people needing palliative care annually. This includes nearly half of the 60 million people who die each year. In addition, over 47 million need palliative care before their last year of life. The number of palliative care services across the world has grown from about 25,000 in 2017 to 32,400 presently and the number of patients receiving palliative care has grown from almost 7 million to over 10.4 million. However, this is still only about 14% of the need is being met and this is mainly in high income countries, while 80% of the need is in low and middle income countries.
To achieve universal access to palliative care we urgently need to better integrate palliative care into all aspects of health care by:
To achieve these goals for each and every community, leadership is needed at all levels across the world. Palliative care health and social care professionals have a special role to play in this. Please join the international palliative care community in holding an event this year on or around WHPCD on the 11th October 2025 that celebrates hospice and palliative care and register your event here. We know there is much to be done to achieve universal access to palliative care, but having your events showcase what is happening and why it is important can make a real difference.
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About the author
Dr Stephen R Connor, PhD, is Executive Director Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA). He has worked in the hospice/palliative care movement since 1975 including 10 years as vice-president of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in America. In addition to being a hospice and association executive, he is a health services researcher, educator, advocate, and psychotherapist, licensed as a clinical psychologist. X: @srconnor.
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