Integrating palliative care into primary health care: Indian perspectives

Abstract

Access to palliative care is essential in primary healthcare as most patients and families prefer end-of-life care at home. However, integrating palliative care into the community is often lacking, disrupting the continuity of care. In a low-middle-income country like India, palliative care is usually provided in tertiary and secondary hospitals. Primary palliative care is sporadically offered in some parts of India, like Kerala, through a neighbourhood network of palliative care (NNPC) programmes. The availability of trained providers, funding, and awareness, limits the capacity to provide primary palliative care. It leads to people accessing care at their end of life in acute hospitals, receiving unnecessary medical interventions, and diminishing their quality of dying. The need for developing palliative care in the community in a low-middle-income country like India is explicated here.