BHUBANESWAR: Bagchi-Karunashraya Palliative Care Centre will soon expand its free home care service to Cuttack and adjoining areas following overwhelming response and incredible outcome witnessed among patients in Bhubaneswar.The palliative care centre is a collaborative effort of Bangalore Hospice Trust (BHT) Karunashraya and renowned tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Subroto Bagchi for which the Bagchi family has pledged `130 crore.
Managing trustee of BHT Gurmeet Singh Randhawa said the centre would gradually expand its service to other cities as the concept of home-based palliative care services is largely unexplored in Odisha.“We would introduce it in Cuttack and a team will remain deployed at our hospice at Infovalley. We are also exploring possibilities of collaborating with other organisations to take the service to other districts,” he said.
Eight teams, each comprising an oncologist, one counsellor and two nursing staff, have been visiting the end stage cancer patients and providing care free of cost. The services include assessment of pain and symptoms, medication, nursing care, wound dressing and psychosocial counselling.
“We have received huge support and requests from patients and their family members for repeated visits. Where there is less scope to assess the need during the end of life, we are glad to provide them hand holding support at their difficult time. Outcome was unbelievable,” said a consultant (palliative care) Dr Praveena Karnam.
Launched in October 2021, the centre has completed 3,000 home visits and attended to 457 terminally ill patients in the city in last two years apart from over 900 OPD visits.The service extended to 37-year-old Amiya Samanta (name changed) from the city made his last days of journey smooth as he was provided with both medication and counselling to overcome suicidal ideation, death anxiety, depression related to the disease and its prognosis.
A driver, Amiya developed huge psychosocial distress and had to face discrimination from the neighbourhood ever since he was diagnosed with carcinoma of buccal mucosa (inner cheek cancer) in July 2021. The patient’s wife was given a sewing machine as livelihood support by an NGO and children provided education related study materials.
The centre has formed a group of oncologists and NGOs for referring the patients from their end while a team of coordinators also visit the government and private cancer hospitals in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to get the direct referral everyday.
“We also train the home caregivers on how to attend such terminally ill patients. Even after any patient passes away, the counsellor keeps a track on the caregiver’s emotional wellbeing and in turn they never hesitate to give a call to the counsellor to express their grief as a resultant of extended bereavement,” added Dr Praveena.