Project Hamrahi – Patna, Bihar July, 2010

July, 2010
Participants:
IGIMS, Patna
Dr. Vinod Verma. Palliative Care Consultant IGIMS
Australasian Palliative Care International
Dr Odette Spruyt. Palliative Care Consultant PMCC.
Pallium India
Professor Rajagopal, Chairman

Summary
This visit was a follow-up to a project led by Pallium India, National Cancer Institute, USA and the WHO Collaborating Centre at Madison-Wisconsin, to initiate palliative care facilities in Regional Cancer Centres across India. At the invitation of the Director, IGIMS, I was fortunate to visit Patna and my thanks go to Dr Vinod Verma for hosting this visit and to all those who showed an interest in palliative care development at IGIMS. The level of support was encouraging and the need for palliative care very evident. The visit extended over one week which allowed time to meet with key figures involved at the Institute, to provide three talks to nursing, medical and wider audience including media and NGOs. It allowed time to develop friendships and experience the warm hospitality of the medical staff in anaesthesiology and medical oncology. Dr Vinod and I were able to spend some hours reviewing the current service and barriers to development. From this basis, ongoing support will be provided through email and phone contact, to assist Dr Vinod to develop a program for service development over the next 6 months. My impression was that it will be very important for Pallium India/APLI through Project Hamrahi, to maintain close contact with Dr Vinod as he expressed his doubts about his ability to achieve the sustained establishment of the Pain and Palliative Care Service.