Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir government will organise a two-day conference and workshop here from Thursday for imparting palliative and geriatric education to doctors and paramedics, officials said.
“Keeping in view the magnitude of the health care need for palliative and geriatric and imparting the education to doctors and paramedics of Jammu province in interest of patients care, a mega two-day conference is being held from July 28 in Jammu”, Member secretary of the conference and head of Palliative and Pain Centre Dr Rohit Lahori told reporters here on Monday.
He said the Directorate of Health Services Jammu is organizing the India’s first free conference and workshop on pain palliative care on 28th and 29th July in collaboration with Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAP) and under the supervision of IAP President and Head of Department (HoD) pain and palliative care AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr Sushma Bhatnagar.
Dr Lahori said the theme of the conference is There is always a hope in Palliative care” and faculty has been invited from premier medical institutes of the country to train the doctors and paramedics of J&K.
This all has been done keeping in consideration the COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, he said.
He said that palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients with life-threatening illnesses, and their families through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification, impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
The Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar in Jammu is the first hospital of J&K to qualify as the registered medical centre for palliative care and is the only district hospital in north India listed among top 10 premier medical institutes for under taking palliative care research programme, in collaboration with AIIMS, New Delhi in its ICMR project, he said.
“The palliative care approach aims to promote physical, psychosocial and spiritual well-being. It is a vital and integral part of all clinical practice, whatever the illness or its stage. The need for PC in a developing country like India is huge, where cure is often impossible, because of late presentation and limited treatment”, he said.
Keeping in view the health and medical education, the department has set up 10 bedded pain, palliative and geriatric wards in all district hospitals of Jammu and Kashmir, which were inaugurated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and also inaugurated palliative and geriatric ward at Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar on March 31.
Giving details, he said that India recorded a significant improvement in life expectancy at birth, which was 47 years in 1969.
“Growing to 60 years in 1994 and 69 years in 2019. The share of population of elderly was 8 per cent in 2015 i.e., 106 million (10 crores plus) across the nation, making India the second largest global population of elderly citizens. Further, it has been projected that by 2050 the elderly population will increase to 19 per cent”, Dr Lahori said.
He said therefore, to identify the health needs of the elderly, it is necessary to understand ageing and age related changes.
“India has 18 per cent of the world’s population. With a crude death rate of 7/1000 and a population of more than 1.36 billion, the total number of people dying every year in India is about 9 million,” he said.
“Majority die in misery. There is a health transition in India, where death and disability from non-communicable diseases (NCD) is on the rise and at 42.4 per cent, is a major public health challenge of growing magnitude. More people are dying of cancer than before, 17 percent of all deaths in 2020, up from 12 per cent in 1990”, he said.
Dr Lahori said that in India, there are 8 lakh new cancer cases per year. Out of 2.5 million cancer patients in India, 80 per cent of them are diagnosed at stage IV and only 0.4 per cent have access to pain and palliative care.
—PTI

Press Trust of India