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Palliative Care Tailored Towards the Needs of the Poor in India

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Abstract

Traditional approaches to palliative care may not meet the unique needs of poor cancer patients in developing countries. Cancer patients treated in India are often unable to make repeat visits to the hospital, pay for drugs, or understand and follow complex treatments. Many are from rural areas and may lack basic financial or social support. Our palliative care clinic has taken a series of innovative first steps towards meeting these unique needs, from providing treatment without complete diagnosis, accelerating through the World Health Organization (WHO) analgesic schedule, systematically simplifying prescriptions, and providing treatment free of charge. This paper describes these first steps, presents an initial evaluation of their impacts, and articulates a number of opportunities for additional improvements.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to all our patients and caregivers for sharing their experiences. Special thanks go to Dr. Nidhi Kalra for encouraging us.

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interest exits.

Ethical Standard

The survey did not involve any therapeutic interventions on patient and did not lead to documentation of data other than that recommended for routine assessment and quality assurance. Therefore, approval of ethical committee was not required.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiotherapy, Safdarjung Hospital & VMMC, New Delhi, Flat No. 706—Sadbhawna Apartments, Sector- 46, Faridabad, Haryana, 121001, India

    Mohan Lal

  2. Department of Anaesthesia, Palliative Care Clinic, Safdarjung Hospital & VMMC, New Delhi, D1/29, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi, 110021, India

    Saveena Raheja

  3. Department of Anaesthesia, Safdarjung Hospital & VMMC, New Delhi, 29 B, Masjid Moth DDA Flat, Phase-I, New Delhi, 110048, India

    Suniti Kale

  4. Department of Radiotherapy, Safdarjung Hospital & VMMC, New Delhi, J/1821, Chitranjan Park, New Delhi, 110019, India

    K. T. Bhowmik

Authors
  1. Mohan Lal
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  2. Saveena Raheja
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  3. Suniti Kale
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  4. K. T. Bhowmik
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Correspondence to Mohan Lal.

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Lal, M., Raheja, S., Kale, S. et al. Palliative Care Tailored Towards the Needs of the Poor in India. Indian J Surg Oncol 6, 227–231 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13193-015-0409-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13193-015-0409-9

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