Hamrahi and the World Cancer Scene
During the annual World Cancer Congress held at Melbourne, Australia, with which was combined the annual meeting of Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA), one session was devoted to development of cancer services in developing countries.
Dr Odette Spruyt, a long term friend of Indian palliative care, described the Hamrahi program, which is taken up by Australia Palliative Link International (APLI) in collaboration with Pallium India. In the program, a doctor-nurse team builds a long-term relationship with one palliative care centre in India. Most of such Indian centres are manned by doctors and nurses with not more than six weeks of training and who have very little scope for updating knowledge. The Hamrahi team of doctor and nurse from Australia or New Zealand spends at least one week with the same team every year, for a minimum of three years. Usually, this helps in building long-term relationships and in improvement of services.
Pallium India also participated in the session, discussing trans-cultural issues. More discussions with happen during the course of the Congress, regarding further development of Hamrahi to cause even more significant impact.
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