Everyone deserves a chance to lead a healthy life. It becomes more applicable for the elderly fighting against life-threatening diseases. Their children might be working in another city, leaving them the only option to opt for formal care-providers and old age homes. Studies show that millions of patients around the country need palliative care. However, there aren’t adequate care facilities in the country to extend palliative care. Recently, WHO has acknowledged the need for advanced geriatric and palliative care for such patients. We are also increasing the number of palliative and hospice care in our country.
“We understand that there are patients who need advanced and specialized care to get rid from pain. Many of them are senior citizens faced with terminal diseases. There are very few institutions which can provide them with the care they need. It is also essential to provide these patients with the comfort they deserve, ” says Dr. Abhishek Shukla, who heads the geriatric & palliative medicine department.
Dr. Shukla has been instrumental in founding the Aastha Centre for Geriatric medicine and palliative medicine. The institute takes care of the elderly who require advanced geriatric and palliative treatment. A point to note is that the therapy requires critical narcotics to lessen the patients’ pain. However, these medications come under the category of regulated substances. It becomes difficult for medical practitioners to gain proper access to these medicines. The time has come to deregulate these chemicals for medicinal purposes.
In old age, people suffer from various ailments which make them frail. Aastha provides primary and specialty healthcare to senior citizens who can alleviate their pain and provide them with a helping hand. The specialist doctors also visit the patients’ homes to take proper care of them. There are services for comprehensive geriatric assessments, memory loss evaluation, adult nutrition counseling, medication evaluation, etc. The institute has several ambulances for transporting patients.
Our Medical Officer says, ”The increasing requirement for quality palliative and geriatric care is on the rise. However, we are now seeing more caregivers and medical practitioners who have advanced training in this field. Aastha has been a pioneer in palliative care in North India and we have been running a hospice for quite some time now. We expect to continue providing quality healthcare to the people who need it the most.”
As advanced studies in this field gain momentum, the government must understand the requirements of the field. The narcotics-related regulations for specific medications are very stringent. It is essential to make these medications available to patients to alleviate their pain.