The “2025 World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Forum,” co-hosted by Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau (KWNC) and Kiang Wu Hospital and funded by the Macao Foundation, was successfully held on October 12, 2025, at the conference center of KWNC. The forum, themed “Delivering on the Promise: Universal Access to Hospice and Palliative Care,” served as the opening event of the Greater Bay Area Hospice Week, aiming to raise public awareness, promote concrete action, respond to global empathy initiatives, and strive for fair and accessible palliative care in Macao and the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area.

In her opening remarks, Ng Pui Kun, Director of Kiang Wu Hospital, noted that more than 73 million people worldwide currently need palliative care each year; with population aging and rising chronic disease, demand will continue to grow. Kiang Wu Hospital established Macao’s first hospice center in 2000 to provide inpatient palliative care for advanced cancer patients, and since 2017 has extended whole-person care across wards to help terminal patients die peacefully, practicing the service philosophy of “a good ending for the departed, a good farewell for those left behind.” The forum brought together professionals from clinical, academic, and social-service fields to discuss challenges and opportunities in palliative care and to promote an equitable, accessible care system, emphasizing palliative care’s role in improving quality of life and advocating equal access for all.

The forum featured multiple keynote presentations covering international perspectives, cultural contexts, and practical experience. Speakers included Dr. Ros Taylor MBE, Medical Director of Harlington Hospice, UK, who spoke on how to face life’s final chapter with dignity and care; Dr. Lu Guijun, Chief Physician, Tsinghua Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, who discussed palliative system development from a Chinese cultural perspective; Ms. Lam Kit-ying, Director of Po Chung Chuen Ying Home for the Elderly (Tung Wah Group of Hospitals), who shared Hong Kong care-home practices enabling residents to die in place; Specialist Nurse Wong Sio leng of Kiang Wu Hospital’s Palliative Care Unit, who discussed challenges and experiences of home-visit services; and Assistant Professor Tam Kuai In of Kiang Wu Nursing College, who presented empirical research on how Greater Bay Area residents’ subjective life-expectancy expectations affect advance care planning.

In his closing remarks, Wong Si Chen, Executive Officer of Education Department of KWNC, emphasized that palliative care is not only medical care but a form of humanistic concern that requires person-centered approaches, respect for the value of life, and professional compassion to accompany each person through their final journey. The forum successfully built an interdisciplinary exchange platform, gathering professionals from medical, nursing, social-service, and academic sectors to explore how to achieve fair and accessible palliative care. KWNC and Kiang Wu Hospital will continue promoting and deepening palliative care across Macao and the Greater Bay Area to improve quality of life for patients at the end of life and their families.