The lancet Commission on Access to Pain Relief and Palliative Care in 2017 finds that 61 million people around the world have ‘serious health-related suffering’ (SHS) which necessitates palliative care. At least 10 million of them are in India. However, only 1% to 2% people have access to such care or pain management in the country. Although there is a national programme for palliative care, medical students do not learn pain management from the curriculum.
Palliative care is a treatment aimed at improving the quality of life of patients and their family when they face serious health problems. That suffering can be physical such as breathlessness, pain, a nasty wound or psychological, social, or spiritual such as depression, social isolation.
Estimates suggest that there are about 3 million patients with cancer in India at any point in time. About two-thirds of them are in pain and one-third in severe pain needing strong analgesics. It is estimated at least 60% to 80% of these patients need palliative and end-of-life care. It is the vedantic principle of the welfare of the society which makes doctors special and different in the society. The day this aspect of welfare is lost, society may not accord us the same respect as they have been doing so till now.
Principles involved in acting towards the welfare of the society includes giving 10% of our time to charity; not charging any fee from those who can’t afford; charging less from the middle class and charging normal from people who can afford and where reimbursements are available. Integrating training in palliative care into the medical curriculum will also pave the way for better trust on doctors by patients.