Maharashtra’s palliative care clinic programme, implemented for patients with chronic illnesses, has become a crucial support system as 201566 patients have benefited from these palliative clinics in the last five years. Additionally, health department workers have made 101,851 home visits across the state to treat patients suffering from severe diseases.
Many people in the state suffer from debilitating illnesses, making it difficult to care for these patients at home. Recognising this, the state government launched palliative care clinics in 2012 on a pilot basis in Igatpuri and Jawhar, Palghar. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, realising the need to expand health services, the programme was extended, and clinics were started in 17 districts across the state. According to the health department, patients with chronic illnesses, physical disabilities, and those who face intense pain and other physical, social, emotional, and economic, issues benefit greatly from palliative care clinics.
“Palliative care is looking after the terminally ill patients and their families provided by the health services. The patients are in the last days of their lives or at times even a few hours and the illness that they suffer is incurable by any medical means. Access to palliative care is a human right and is of paramount importance for patients on whom all possible treatments have not given favourable results,” said a state health officer.
The outpatient (OPD) and inpatient (IPD) count for palliative clinics was 9,776 in 2019-20. Due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, it dropped to 3,947 in 2020-21. It then rose to 38,820 in 2021-22, 44,931 in 2022-23, and 104,087 as of March 2023-24. In these five years, 155,303 patients visited clinics for follow-up. Psychosocial interventions, generally for issues like substance abuse cessation and relapse prevention, were provided to 143,377 patients. “The number of new patients in both OPD and IPD has gone up every year. The number of psycho-social interventions provided by the centres has also gone-up from 4727 in 2019-2020 to 41689 in 2022-2023," said a senior health official.
Patients in the terminal stages of their lives, where curative therapy is ineffective, primarily benefit from palliative care, which aims to alleviate pain and symptoms. Palliative care is provided to patients with cancer, paralysis, HIV, drug-resistant TB, mentally challenged children, elderly patients with disabilities, and kidney and liver disorders. Eight districts have appointed one trained medical officer, four nurses, and one multi-task worker each. In other districts, officials and staff under the NCD programme have been instructed to examine patients and provide services twice weekly at the district hospital’s OPD. In selected talukas, home-based care will also be provided.
