Published on: June 22, 2018

Mr Pu Lalthanzara with Dr Sanghluna

We must give credit to the enlightened minister of health and officials and to the sustained advocacy by the local palliative care teams that there was such clear acceptance of the NDPS amendment act in Mizoram. There was no manifestation of the opiophobia that we are used to seeing at meetings involving government officials, hospital authorities and the public in many places.

An opioid availability workshop was conducted in the Chief Minister’s office at Aizawl, presided over by Mr Pu Lalthanzara, the Health Minister of the state of Mizoram.

In the presence of the State Drug Controller, Director of Health and Medical Education, Officials from Food & Drug Administration and the Excise Department, Directors and other leadership from the leading hospitals and Cancer Foundation and the National Program for Palliative Care State Nodal Officer – all officials agreed to do the needful for better availability of opioids in the state.

Dr Athikho Nepuni of CIHSR Dimapur and Dr Lalkrosthangi Khalo of Naga Civil Hospital Kohima, who specially travelled from Nagaland, appreciated the good work being done in the state of Mizoram with the support of the government, church and other communities. They felt encouraged to build a similar network in Nagaland also.

Pallium India had worked with Dr Jeremy Pautu more than 12 years back to establish an excellent palliative care Centre in the regional Cancer Centre at Aizawl. More recently, we are working with Synod Hospital to spread access to palliative care as much as possible in the state.

We congratulate the team at Synod Hospital – Dr Lalchhanhima Ralte, Dr Sanghluna, Mr Sena, Ms Arini and many others who worked tirelessly for organising this event. And we thank the director and administrators of Synod Hospital for their support.