Home, not hospital, better for palliative care in Covid times: AIIMS-P study

PATNA: A team of doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna (AIIMS-P) has come out with a three-category suggestive plan for palliative care of elderly and terminally ill patients amid coronavirus pandemic.

The new palliative care plan, christened ‘Pain and palliative care at home in Covid-19 pandemic’, authored by Poonam Kumari, Amarjeet Kumar, Chandani Sinha and Ajeet Kumar, all from anaesthesia, pain and palliative care department of AIIMS-P, was published in the Indian Journal of Palliative Care on June 30.

Dr Chandani told this newspaper rapid spread of Covid-19 has crowded most hospitals. “In such a situation, the first suggestion is advance care planning so that terminally ill patients remain protected against the virus infection,” she said.

Co-researcher Dr Amarjeet Kumar said the second category of palliative care is pain management, in which patients are advised to adopt e-healthcare and keep in regular touch with doctors via phone, e-mail, videoconferencing and social media platforms.

“Today things have changed so much that both doctors and patients should maintain physical distance from each other to break the chain of coronavirus”, he said.

About 50% elderly and terminally ill patients had mild to severe pains and in case of cancer patients, it often became unbearable.

However, it is better to take the pills of painkillers advised by doctors at home than to rush to hospitals and get exposed to Covid-19, Dr Amarjeet said.

Dr Poonam Kumari, another co-researcher, said the third suggestion was home care support.

“With advancement of technology, telemedicine and availability of trained nursing staff with necessary equipment, home care is the most favoured option for care of elderly people with paralysis, certain types of cancer and age related problems,” she said, adding palliative care aims to improve the quality of life of terminally ill patients and their families and even a counsellor was available 24x7 at AIIMS-P to facilitate it.