What is the reason for the establishment of hospices?
The idea of the hospice for the terminally ill comes from England. The main purpose was to make heavily sedating drugs (referred to as pain cocktails), including so-called “illegal” drugs, available in necessary dosages and combinations to keep these terminal patients pain-free. As the patients have been given up on medically, every action, though medically supervised, serves to make the patient live as comfortable as possible. In simpler terms, hospice care is no longer directed toward healing, but to making life bearable. The British concept was accepted by the American health care system and one of the first American hospices was founded by Kaiser Permanente. The first thing Kaiser had to do to make the concept palatable to the American health care system was to eliminate the illegal substances from the pain cocktails. The humanitarian aspects of the original hospice concept was maintained and to this day, the Kaiser Permanente hospice has remained a model institute. A concept incor
