Free palliative care reaching every nook and corner in Telangana

Realising the need to provide such pain management facilities at local level, the Telangana government, in the last year or so, collaborated with voluntary organisations to expand the crucial palliative care facilities in all the 33 districts

Hyderabad: Till a few years ago, terminally ill cancer patients from economically weaker sections in Telangana had only one option of visiting Hyderabad-based Government MNJ Cancer Hospital to access palliative care services. Quite often, after a few visits due to the hardships associated with travel and long hours of waiting at the cancer hospital, such patients quickly used to give up.

Realising the need to provide such pain management facilities at local level, the Telangana government, in the last year or so, collaborated with voluntary organisations to expand the crucial palliative care facilities in all the 33 districts.

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Notwithstanding the niggling challenges inherent in such endeavours, senior health officials familiar with palliative care facilities point out that patients have started to reap benefits. “While difficulties persist, volunteers, experienced counsellors, trained field level ASHA workers and even government cancer specialists in Telangana are doing their best to provide proper palliative care facilities. Through these services, the Telangana government is extending end-of-life care for these patients, which is quite rare in the country,” says MNJ Cancer Hospital Director Dr Jaya Latha.

Apart from providing palliative care in district hospitals, trained field level healthcare workers including Accredited Social Health Activists are also providing home care services. A large number of terminally ill patients are immobile and struggle to travel to the nearest government healthcare facility. As a result, trained ASHA and palliative care workers make home visits for such patients and provide them with palliative care. At all the district hospitals in 33 districts, inpatient and outpatient palliative care facilities are available.

Each palliative care facility has a doctor, five nurses, one physiotherapist, a driver and five non-clinical staff to take care of the patients and day-to-day activities. The State government is incurring an expenditure of anywhere between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 35 lakh for each of the free palliative care facility in Telangana. To enable healthcare workers to travel to the houses of the patients, the State government is also providing mobile vans, dubbed as Mobile Home Care Units (MHCUs).