Costa Rica inaugurated its new Center for Pain and Palliative Care of the Social Security Administration (CCSS) that will benefit between 10-12 thousand patients.

The new infrastructure had a cost of 6,300 million colones (almost 11 million USD) and include 5,950 square meters of construction that provide services such as: specialized medical services, day hospital, palliative care intervention, investigation and teaching, video-conferences for virtual consultations, specialized therapies, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, psychology, social services, nutrition, pharmaceutical attention and education, nurse services, among others.

The new building will offer patients a more comfortable and safe place; it will also contribute to educating on the attention of pain control and palliative care for health workers in different levels of attention.

This new Center will be the unit of reference for high complexity cases in all the country. It will guarantee access to comprehensive health care for patients undergoing pain due to cancer and other chronic, progressive and terminal illnesses. The Day Hospital services will collaborate with families in the care of patients to improve their quality of life.

In Costa Rica, palliative medicine began being applied formally in January of 1991. It began as a clinic in the Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia Hospital and then it progressed to a national center in 1999. Today there is a network of 51 clinics in different parts of the country.

Palliative care and pain control in Costa Rica are a worldwide reference since there are very few countries that include this attention in their health system as is the case of Costa Rica.