Published on: July 17, 2015

Sir George Alleyne called it a stroke of genius for major NGOs in the field of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) to form the NCD Alliance representing 880 member organizations in 170 countries. The objective: cooperation among international non-government organizations to achieve common goals for NCDs, the ultimate goal being the control of Non-Communicable Diseases – cancer, hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung disease, dementia and many others which today cause a lot of morbidity and premature deaths. NCD Meeting in Delhi

Under the leadership of Dr Renu Garg, NCD Regional Advisor, WHO SEARO (South East Asian Regional Office) and Ms Katie Dain, Executive Director, The NCD Alliance, ably assisted by Ms Alena Matzke and Ms Cristina Parsons Perez, the representatives of non-government organizations from 13 different countries in the region got together in Delhi on 9th and 10th of July to discuss action plan for the future. Sir George Alleyne and Dr Srinath Reddy (Public Health Foundation of India) were two stalwarts who participated in the deliberations.

We are glad to report that in keeping with the global NCD goals, palliative care certainly finds a place in the plans. It will be a struggle, though, because in this region very few countries have reasonable facilities for palliative care. They are either budding or non-existent. But there was almost universal agreement that palliative care must be integrated with NCD control program “across all levels of health care” as Sir George Alleyne hastened to add.

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