Telangana to establish more palliative care centres soon

Hyderabad: Palliative care facilities for patients suffering from end-stage diseases like cancer at all district hospitals in Telangana will be a reality in the coming months. After establishing 18 free palliative care centres, State Health Department in the coming months will establish 10 more, which will effectively cover the entire State. As part of the […]

Hyderabad: Palliative care facilities for patients suffering from end-stage diseases like cancer at all district hospitals in Telangana will be a reality in the coming months.

After establishing 18 free palliative care centres, State Health Department in the coming months will establish 10 more, which will effectively cover the entire State. As part of the Telangana Palliative Health and Home Care initiative, the health authorities are aiming to ensure free palliative care facilities reach all the patients who are suffering from incurable diseases in all the 33 districts.

Already, home care services, where health care workers visit the homes of the patients to provide care, are operational in 33 districts. The inpatient and outpatient facilities are available in 18 districts while 10 more such facilities will be added in the coming months.
The free palliative care facilities provide end of life care for patients suffering with life limiting diseases like cancer. A team of doctors, nurses, social workers provide palliative care and make patient pain free and incorporate palliative care into the care of the patient right from the time of diagnosis.

A majority of such end-stage patients find it difficult to physically visit the palliative care facilities. For that reason, staff trained in palliative care visits the houses of the patients to provide them with necessary medication, guidance and help.

The local Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers have been trained to identify the patients who are then given access to palliative care facilities in their homes. The palliative home care services are essentially aimed to enhance quality of life of patients by offering them medical services through a care giver in their homes.

Each palliative care facility has a doctor, 5 nurses, one physiotherapist, one driver and 5 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.

The palliative care facilities, which are located within the premises of the District Hospital, will provide inpatient, outpatient and home care services. To facilitate the care, providers travel to the houses of the patients. A few years ago the State government had launched 17 mobile vans, dubbed as Mobile Home Care Units (MHCU).

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