MADURAI
The Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine (GHTM) at Thoppur near Tirumangalam would soon get an outpatient ward for patients in need of palliative care, said D. Maruthupandian, Government Rajaji Hospital, here on Friday.
The ward, which will be set up in Madurai along with 11 other districts in Tamil Nadu, will be the first government-run facility for palliative care in the district.
Dr. Maruthupandian said that ₹ 15 lakh had been sanctioned for the facility and the required work for setting up the infrastructure would commence in a couple of weeks.
“The facility was initially sanctioned for the Government Hospital in Usilampatti. It was, however, decided later that GHTM is a better place to host the facility,” he added.
S. Gandhimathinathan, Resident Medical Officer, GHTM, said that the centre would provide outpatient care for terminally ill patients, specifically those suffering from cancer.
“A doctor from the hospital, who will act as the Palliative Care Medical Officer, has undergone specific training for this. Other nursing staff will also be provided the required training,” he said, adding that the centre would stock and provide medicines like morphine to alleviate pain.
Though the proposal is only to have an outpatient ward, the doctor said that eight beds, four each for men and women, would be reserved for treating terminally ill patients as inpatients. “We cannot keep the patients till their last breath as done in hospice centres. However, patients in need of a few days of treatment to reduce their pain will be taken as inpatients,” he said.
Welcoming the move as a first concrete move by the government towards palliative care, V.P. Manikandan, advisor to Nethravathi Pain and Palliative Care Centre, a not-for-profit palliative and hospice centre in Madurai, appealed to the government to soon set up a hospice centre where terminally ill patients can stay.
“There are only two such centres presently in Madurai, which are grossly inadequate to meet the increasing need for hospice care,” he said, adding that the eight beds reserved at the hospital must be used to accommodate terminally ill cancer patients from economically backward families.
Highlighting that a majority of these terminally ill patients are abandoned by their families, he said that government-run centres would be better equipped to admit them.