The Local Self-Governments department has revised the guidelines for palliative care under local bodies in the State. Currently, palliative care at primary level is being carried out under all local bodies in the State, while secondary level care is being provided at general hospitals, district hospitals and family health centres under the co-ordination of various local bodies.
The guideline revision is intended to bring in timely improvements to the existing system as well as to further widen its scope. It aims to provide palliative care services to people of all income groups in urban as well as rural areas. All local bodies are required to mandatorily include projects for palliative care at the primary and secondary care levels in their annual plans.
The local bodies have to prepare ward-level lists of those requiring palliative care, including bed-ridden patients as well as those who are suffering from serious illnesses for a long time. The details of these persons have to be added to the ‘Kerala Care’ – Community-based Palliative Care Grid portal – and separate teams deployed for both categories of patients. The local bodies also need to identify volunteers who want to be part of the palliative care mechanism with the help of social and mass organisations. Training has to be provided for the newly-recruited volunteers, who will then have to be registered in the grid and connected to patients.
House visits and palliative care services have to be ensured at periodic intervals for all the registered patients. For the bed-ridden patients, this period is two weeks, while it is one month for those with serious illnesses. However, the visit timings can be tailor-made based on requirements, as some patients require daily care. One Home care unit each, consisting of all the required personnel to provide care, has to be formed for a population of 20,000.
