State Mission Director, National Health Mission Manipur, Dr Somorjit Ningombam said that the problem of fund crunches that have been faced in palliative healthcare centres of the state government from past few years will surely be addressed in the coming days.
Dr Somorjit Ningombam stated this during the sensitization program on Palliative Care Service in Manipur at Hotel Sangai, Nagamapal on Saturday.
Addressing the function as chief guest, Somorjit said that palliative care is one of the most important healthcare services needed by people with incurable illness spending their last days, months or years in misery. The state of Manipur with a population of around 30 lakh is estimated to have more than 12,000 patients who are in need of palliative care at any point of time, he added.
The programme was organised by state NCD Cell National Health Mission and directorate of Health Services Manipur.
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He further said that the state is delivering the service with so many challenges created out of fund shortage from past few years. However, the state government has taken up necessary steps to address it in days to come, he added.
The state had started palliative care service in 2014 with a Non-Governmental Organization called Palliative Care Society of Imphal. The health care system of the government continued the service after providing necessary training to healthcare professionals in palliative care. The directorate of Health Services and State Health Society, National Health Mission under National Program of Palliative Care (NPPC) has trained more than 550 health care professionals with the help of Institute of Palliative Medicine, Kerala and WHO Collaborating Centre, he added.
He informed that every district hospitals have palliative care unit with 10 beds and for those places where there are no district hospitals, the service is available in public health centres and in health and wellness centres and home-based care is provided.
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Palliative Care involves psychological, social and spiritual support to the patients in addition to the relief from physical symptoms offered by the health care system. As such palliative care service not only requires health care workers but also there is a need for involvement of community members. For this structured training programs are available to train those volunteers, he added.
The programme was also attended by additional director of Medical Care, directorate of Health Services, Manipur, Dr Lalthari Hmar and director of Institute of Palliative Medicine Calicut and WHO Collaborating Centre, Dr Suresh Kumar as guest of honour and president respectively.
