Palliative care project launched in Kozhikode

The government agencies and local bodies including municipal corporations should be ready to include altruistic initiatives such as palliative care programmes in their developmental projects, Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali has said.

The government agencies and local bodies including municipal corporations should be ready to include altruistic initiatives such as palliative care programmes in their developmental projects, Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali has said.

He was inaugurating a palliative care project implemented by the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation at the Town Hall here on Friday.

Stating that the idea of development should also be inclusive of projects and programmes meant to take care of the needs of senior citizens as well as those who suffer from different critical diseases and disabilities, Mr. Ali said the government was “always” ready to support any such projects.

The rehabilitation of beggars and destitute people, according to him, should be one of the priorities of all city corporations in the State.

The Minister, who maintained that around 40 per cent of the State’s population was above the age of 60, said it was important that the government agencies and local bodies kept in their mind the needs and priorities of the population while conceiving any developmental project.

Presiding over the function, Corporation Mayor A.K. Premajam said that as many as 160 people would get the benefits of the palliative care project in its first phase.

“The project aims to make treatment and palliative care available to the most deserving people at their homes,” she said.

Around 1,400 people from economically poor families, residing under the corporation and who deserved special medical attention and palliative, would be brought under the scheme in its later stage.

Doctors’ team

The services of expert doctors from government hospitals would be made available under the project.

The team of doctors would be led by Dr. K. Sureshkumar, director of the Institute of Palliative Care, Kozhikode Medical College.

Those who would like to get the service of the newly opened palliative centre could register their names with the office of the centre at Idiyangara in the city.

Free medicines, ambulance service, water beds, wheelchairs and home care would be available to the patients.

Though patients below the poverty line would be given priority, those deserving in the APL group would also be considered at a later stage.