Published on: July 8, 2019

We are honoured and delighted to announce a very special collaboration between Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and Pallium India, who have come together with a shared vision to launch a countrywide programme to train healthcare professionals in Palliative Care.

PHFI was established in 2006 as a not-for-profit public private initiative to build public health capacity, enabled by the Government of India and supported by multiple stakeholders including foundations and philanthropists, with a mandate to build a ‘Healthier India’. This is achieved by working in 3 core mission areas: a) Developing the public health workforce and setting standards, b) Advancing public health research and technology, c) Strengthening knowledge application and evidence-informed public health practice and policy. So far, close to 25,000 healthcare professionals have been trained under training division of PHFI. While a majority of the trainees have been primary care physicians, PHFI is increasingly focussing on trainings for allied health professionals in areas like healthcare quality and program management.

Set up in 2003, Pallium India’s vision is that every person suffering from a life-limiting or life threatening condition in India has access to effective pain relief and quality palliative care. It strives to address the needless suffering of those millions in India and enable them to live a life of dignity and self-respect by working in collaboration with several national and international organisations to improve the accessibility and affordability of pain relief drugs (opioids) and other low cost medicines, to ensure the availability of palliative care services in India and to improve the quality of palliative care services provided by the healthcare and allied health care professionals.

In the coming years, it is our hope that the partnership between these two organisations achieves its mission to empower increasing numbers of healthcare professionals and build capacity aimed at alleviating the tremendous illness-related suffering in our country.