Ep. 139: Palliative care: Treating the Person, Not the Disease

Dr. M.R. Rajagopal of Pallium India talks to host Pavan Srinath about Palliative care, what it means and how we can ease suffering and pain across India, on Episode 139 of The Pragati Podcast.

Palliative care focuses on quality of life of patients, especially those facing life-threatening illnesses, with a focus on treating pain, alleviating suffering and managing other challenges. Palliative care is a distant priority in India, where even primary and preventive care take a back-seat to curative, hospital-centric, and disease-oriented treatment.

India has changed its draconian laws that have prevented deserving patients from accessing pain medication like Morphine, but the changes remain in theory, and inexpensive opioid pain relief remains a distant dream for most Indians, often in the name of preventing abuse.

Dr. M.R. Rajagopal is the founder-chairman of Pallium India and director of Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences, which is a WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Policy on Access to Pain Relief. Dr. Rajagopal has worked through the length of his career to establish palliative care and its importance in India, provide relief to innumerable Indians both directly and indirectly. He was honoured with a Padma Shri by the Republic of India in 2018 for his efforts. Visit https://palliumindia.org/ to learn more.

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