A pioneering initiative for palliative care in Geneva
On November 1st 2024, a new health care service dedicated to palliative care was launched in Geneva. Aiming to strengthen and reinforce the value of home health care, this collaboration between public and private sectors – Geneva’s University Hospital (HUG) and Genève-Médecins (GE-MED) – has created opportunity for urgent medical interventions specifically designed for palliative patients at home. All visits are carried out by Geneva doctors specialising in palliative care.
Our goals
Training today’s and tomorrow’s doctors
As part of a training program for primary care physicians from HUG and their GE-MED counterparts, all consultations are overseen by supervising doctors from the HUG palliative care division.
By reinforcing the skills and knowledge essential to palliative care, this initiative not only enhances the core competencies of Geneva’s doctors, but contributes to the overall well-being of of today’s and tomorrow’s patients. Given the demographic projections of the Geneva canton, this reinforcement is imperative.
A renewed focus on home health care
In practical terms, this initiative assembles a team of doctors to provide urgent home consultations to patients suffering from incurable disease, who wish to remain at home and who are experiencing acute symptoms such as pain, breathing difficulties, anxiety, etc.
We aim to:
- Alleviate discomfort as quickly as possible in urgent situations
- Avoid rehospitalisation, if possible
- Initiate palliative care measures
- If possible and if desired, initiate curative treatments
These initial steps will allow us to stabilise complex situations and organise follow-up measures with Geneva’s existing health care network.
How to benefit from urgent palliative care at home?
Requests can be made by patients, their family members or health care professionals. We ask that you first contact your primary care doctor, if possible.
The GE-MED/HUG team is on call and available:
Monday – Friday 08:00 – 17:00
Saturday and Sunday 08:00 – 17:00 (emergencies only)
Outside of these hours and for ’emergency’ situations, GE-MED’s regular team of doctors are available for consultation 24/7.
To request urgent palliative services or for all related enquiries, please contact GE-MED by telephone.