The Taiwan Hospice Organization will hold a concert Oct. 2 to celebrate the Oct. 9 World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, organization officials announced at a press conference in Taipei Thursday. The concert will be streamed online so that people in hospices all over the country can watch and listen, the officials said. The organization's director, Fang Chun-kai, said hospice and palliative care is provided for dying patients with eight kinds of non-cancer illnesses, including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and kidney failure. Hospice care beds at most hospitals are usually available, except at National Taiwan University Hospital and at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital, where there is normally a waiting list for such beds, Fang noted. The organization urged terminal patients -- especially non-cancer ones -- and their families to take better advantage of hospice services at hospitals and care centers, or to choose home care, which includes visits from medical professionals and social workers. 'Hospice and palliative care does not add needless suffering for dying patients nor does it provide unnecessary critical treatment. However, family members are still sometimes unwilling to go this route,' Fang said. In such situations, the patients continue to receive medical treatment with invasive and distressing procedures designed to prolong life. Thirty-seven hospitals in Taiwan provide hospice and palliative care, while 64 offer home services to more than 7,000 patients around the country, according to a health official. Most of the patients who receive end-of-life services are in the terminal stages of cancer, according to Wang Tsung-hsi, vice director-general of the Bureau of Medical Affairs under the Cabinet-level Department of Health. They account for up to 38 percent of all cancer patients in the country, Wang said. 