Issues related to Vulnerable Sections
Source: The Economic Times
Context:
The author talks about the need for responsive & robust palliative care in India.
Editorial Insights:
What's the issue?
Palliative care in India has been the most ignored area of medical care, nothing concrete has changed in palliative care of India.
Palliative Care:
As per WHO Palliative Care is the total active care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment.
Control of pain, other symptoms & psychological, social & spiritual problems are paramount.
The main goal of Palliative Care is the achievement of the best possible quality of life for patients & their families.
Palliative Care in India:
- In India, Palliative care is non-existent at the grassroots.
- The need for Palliative care has never been greater because,
- There is a lack of trained personnel,
- Restricted access to opioids for pain control,
- Refusal to accept that the process of dying rather than against it.
- Non-communicable diseases like cancer are on the rise.
- At present, India has 3 million people with cancer at any given time.
Of these, 75-80% come with advanced disease & half of them die within a year & yet not more than 2% receive palliative care because:
- The paucity of services,
- The reluctance of people to get timely check-ups during the pandemic.
- The number of people presenting with advanced cancers in the coming days is likely to swell.
What needs to be done?
- Patient autonomy in palliative care needs to be respected.
- Society must move from a death-denying society to death accepting one.
- The need is to have an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals who are sensitive & good listeners as well as excellent communicators & team players.
- There is a need for the treating specialist to continue to be involved rather than cutting off relations with patients once treatment fails.
Concluding remarks:
The need of the hour is that not only should patients be referred to the palliative care team early to ensure a better quality of life, but the continued survival & safety of members of the family left behind are also to be taken care of.
