Developing a palliative care service suited to the Indian scene
-M.R.Rajagopal
Of the 61 million people in serious health-related suffering around the globe[1], at least 7 million are estimated to be in India. Less than 4% of them have access to palliative care and are in needless pain and suffering. Any attempt at solving this problem has to take into account the enormity of numbers and should be realistic.
What can be done?
[1] Knaul FM, Farmer PE, Krakeur EL et al. Alleviating the access abyss in palliative care and pain relief—an imperative of universal health coverage: the Lancet Commission report. The Lancet 2017; The Lancet, 391:10128