KOCHI: A paper on ‘Palliative Care: Initiatives in Homoeopathy – An Institutional Model of the Government of Kerala’ by Dr Bindu John Pulparampil, resident medical officer at the Government Homoeo Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, narrated the palliation story from the state at the two-day International Conference on Integrative Oncology 2020 (ICIO 2020), which concluded here on Sunday. The conference was organised by the Global Homoeopathy Foundation (GHF).
According to the state-wise beneficiary data for homoeo-palliative care (2017-18), there were a total of 7,743 OP patients and 1,669 IP patients under palliative care. While the number of home visits stood at 768, the number of medical camps conducted was 113.
As many as 89 awareness classes were also held. The maximum number of IP admissions was recorded in Kollam at 385, while the lowest was recorded in Alappuzha at six. Most number of cancer cases was reported from Kasaragod at 146 and the least from Thrissur at 28.
The paper’s major conclusion was that “personalised homoeopathic medicinal intervention can improve the quality of life among palliative patients, while multidisciplinary approach with other AYUSH systems may be developed for providing comprehensive care”.
The thrust areas of palliation by homoeopathy are patients with inoperable tumours, relapse cases that were provided conventional treatment, neurological cases with disability, geriatric palliative patients and physical-emotional-psychosocial integration.