Palliative care body to draw national policy in India

The Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) has named a committee to formulate a national policy for it. The committee will submit the drafted policy to the Centre and request that it be adopted across the country.

The decision was taken by the Executive Council of the Association, which met on Saturday at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science, Lucknow, during its 10th Annual Conference. “The committee was formed by the Executive Council, which met here yesterday. The chairman of the committee is Dr Stanley Macaden, a palliative care specialist at Bangalore,” said Dr Anil Agarwal, Professor of Anesthesiology, SGPGI and Executive Council Member of IAPC.

The four-member committee is expected to submit its first draft within three months.

“Palliative care is the treatment of pain caused by life limiting diseases like cancer,” said Dr MR Rajagopal, one of the committee members. “Besides being a medical care, it is also about social and psychological assistance to patients and their families. Kerala is the only state that has a palliative care policy and the need for a national policy was felt for long.”

Founder of Pallium India, one of the charitable trusts rendering palliative care in Kerala, Rajagopal is a pioneer in the field here and was also a members of the committee that formulated the policy in Kerala.

“With palliative care being recognised as a human right, it is the obligation of the Union health ministry to arrange for its provision at all government hospitals,” said Rajagopal.

A possible recommendation in the policy will be that all medical colleges should have palliative care within two years and government hospitals within five years, said Rajagopal.

The Medical Council of India has given approval for an MD course in Palliative Care.

“Though the gazette notification of the course is still not out, we have come to know that even the government has given its approval. This will help in a great way,” he added.