Published on: February 26, 2015

“Should we always tell the truth to the patient, even if the news is very bad?”

“What do we do if the patient does want to know, but the family does not permit disclosure?”

“Will morphine not be abused if widely available?”

These were some of the predictable questions that came up during a five hour CME program at M.P.Shah Medical College (MPSMC), Jamnagar, Gujarat on 22 February 2015.

The unexpected part was that half the audience consisted of senior doctors, including many professors from various clinical departments. We are happy to see this growing interest in palliative care all over the country. How different the scene is, from the first report that we gave on Jamnagar, a year and a half ago! The new palliative care centre there was a project that the Department of Oncology at MPSMC and Pallium India collaborated on with funding from Pallium India USA, thanks to the initiative of Dr Jerina Kapoor. When Dr Jitesh Sarvaiya, who was initially a member of the project staff, got a government appointment and had to move to another department, the service was continued by the nurse Jaya Ben, with the support of the head of the department, Dr Suresh Agarwal. Now, Dr Pritesh Patel is undergoing training at GCRI, Ahmedabad and we are looking forward to the expansion of the program.

We have reason to be optimistic! Congratulations, Dr Suresh Agarwal and team.