The Kazakhs were a nomadic society in the nineteenth century, but nearly 60% of the population now live in urban areas.¹⁷ There are, however, no hospices in the rural areas. There is no exact data on patients receiving palliative care or on place of death in Kazakhstan, although annually there are 25,000 cancer patients registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan, with 16,800 cancer deaths (Public Health Ministry data). Depending on the number of beds, hospices usually serve from 400 to 800 people a year. Hospices in Kazakhstan do not render their care to HIV/AIDS patients.¹⁸

In 2005, there were five hospices, two home palliative care teams (at hospices in Pavlodar and Almaty) and five day centres in Kazakhstan, and the ratio of hospice/palliative care services was one service per 1.28 million inhabitants (see Table 3). This compares to nil services per 15.7 million inhabitants in 2002.¹⁹

Table 3: Ratio of hospice/palliative care services per million population; Commonwealth of Independent States (plus Mongolia) (2005)

Source: EAPC Taskforce on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe (2005) A Map of Palliative Care Specific Resources in Europe. 4^th Research Forum of the European Association for Palliative Care, Venice, Italy, 25^th-27^th May 2006/ http://www.eapcnet.org/Policy/CountriesReport.htm

Clark, D., and Wright, M. (2003) Transitions in End of Life Care: Hospice and Related

Developments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Buckingham: Open University Press.