Thrissur, Nov 8: Counselling and support are essential pillars of healing a patient at any stage of a chronic condition.
Cancer patients need more emotional, psychological, and social support, said Dr Naresh Purohit, Advisor , National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP).
Sharing his concern on the availability of palliative care , Visiting Professor at the Thrissur based Kerala University of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Dr Purohit told newspersons , here after addressing a Continuing Medical Education (CME) Programme on the occasion of National Cancer Awareness Day organised by the Amla Institute of Medical Science, Thrissur that even with improvements in accessibility and availability of good cancer treatment facilities in metros, 60 percent of cancer patients report to the hospitals in the late stages, when they are incurable. The only way to improve their quality of life and survival rates is to make palliative care available to the maximum number of patients at an early stage.
An Epidemiologist revealed that currently, about 60 lakh cancer patients require palliative care but it is only available to 2 per cent of the patients. The reason is the non-availability of a desired number of palliative care centres, trained palliative care specialists, nurses, and the non-availability of opioids which are available to only 3 per cent of cancer patients, said Dr Naresh Purohit. “There are lots of gaps between the need and availability of palliative care. Most medical professionals, medical administrators and the public do not know what palliative care is “he added.
Experts in the programme averred that the right time to start palliative care is the minute diagnostics of late stages of cancer are made.
They emphasised that a multidisciplinary palliative care team should be involved in managing the pain, and emotional, psychological, spiritual, and social distressing symptoms, which occur after the patient finds out that the disease is not curable.
