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Current State of Palliative End-of-Life Care in India

Suantak Demkhosei Vaiphei

End-of-life care is a humanistic approach that aims to deliver the quality of life for those patients and families facing life-limiting advanced medical illnesses in clinical practices. It demands a holistic assessment through multidisciplinary team interventions to effectively encounter the patient's psychological sufferings, social isolation, and mental disharmony. However, end-of-life care is still an unheard area of care in most parts of the Indian subcontinent. The health care systems in the country like UK, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc., were at an advanced stage of delivering 'good death' in the face of painful, life-threatening medical illness. The goal of endof- life care is not to shorten neither prolong the patient's life but to focus on alleviating pain and improving quality of life. Yet, 80% of the terminally ill patients in India failed to receive end-of-life care. Effective implementation of plan and policy, maximum availability of essential medications, and public awareness are the current challenges in Indian palliative end-of-life care.