Scaling up Palliative Care initiatives under National Health Mission
A two-day meeting on “Scaling up Palliative Care Initiatives under National Health Mission: A National Consultation” was held on 11th and 12th August 2016 at National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), New Delhi. MoHFW officials including Prof Jagdish Prasad, DGHS, Dr. Alok Mathur, Mr.Satyanarayan Dash, and Dr Fukru Tullu, team leader, NCD, WHO Country office for India attended the program. Dr Nandini Vallath represented the WHO Collaborating Centre at TIPS.
The National Program for Palliative Care (NPPC) is now operational since 2012; however budget allocation has not been made and funds are now available for states directly from the NCD flexipool. Programme implementation plan (PIP) for palliative care needs to be submitted by the states. Model PIP is available on the website of the Directorate General of Health Services.
Palliative Care still lacks clarity despite being in practice in India for two decades. The group emphasized the need to include all diseases and not just cancer under the purview of palliative care.
A detailed action plan was drawn up for each state and the person(s) responsible for this identified.