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It is almost impossible to imagine, but there are
approximately 2 million people in India suffering from pain at any one time,
the majority due to cancer and HIV and Aids. Expensive treatments, freely
available in the West, are often not an option for a patient from a poor
family in India. This is why work undertaken by the Pain and Palliative
Society in Calicut, Kerala is so crucial. This out-patient clinic
provides pain-relief and support to patients through a team of compassionate
and dedicated doctors, nurses and trained volunteers. |
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The Savitri Waney
Charitable Trust has provided funding for equipping a new in-patient
facility and training centre for the society which as well as offering
treatment to patients will train doctors from all over Asia in this
relatively new field of medicine.
Doctors on their way to attend a patient at his home
Palliative care is a combination of pain and symptom
relief, and social and emotional support. It means being interested in the
person as well as in his diagnosis, and skillfully using medications so
that patients’ can have a new lease of life, free from pain. The poor in
India, suffering from terminal illnesses, have very few places to turn to
for relief. There is no National Health Service so they are usually
dependent on Government Hospitals where appropriate care is neither known
about nor offered. Many patients cannot afford to go anywhere.
The Pain and Palliative Society
(PPCS) of Calicut, Kerala was set up in 1993 in response to
this desperate situation. Today, their clinic on average, sees 65 patients
daily, of which an average of 7 are new patients. Of these, 80% have
advanced cancer, 17% have painful non-malignant conditions and 2-3% are
HIV positive. Around 2,300 patients benefit each year at PPCS under the
compassionate care of a group of dedicated doctors, nurses and volunteers.
Treating a patient at
home.
The clinic has had remarkable success in training a large
group of doctors and nurses from all over India and also from neighboring
countries such as Nepal, Bhutan and Indonesia. In 1997 the skills of this
dedicated team were recognized by the World Health Organization and PPCS
became a WHO Demonstration Project.
In 2001, The Wilfrid Bruce Davis Trust, a registered
UK charity which supports cancer relief in particular, offered to
underwrite the costs for the construction of an in-patient facility and
training centre for the society as there are no beds available at the
clinic despite the terrible pain often suffered by the patients. Further
more, the society wished to carry out more training yet were constrained
by lack of space, manpower and finance. It is vital that the clinic
continues to train doctors and nurses throughout Asia as the aim must be
PAIN RELIEF FOR ALL.
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01. Mission for vision
02. Pain & Palliative
care
03. Sirasu
development project
04. Savitri rural development project
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This young woman lived from several
weeks with intolerable pain in this position. After three days at
one of the link centres connected to the pain and palliative centre
(one of the few able to provide a bed), she was pain free. |
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