Dr M.R. Rajagopal receives prestigious Human Rights Award for “Extraordinary Activism”

Dr M.R. Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India and tireless champion of the rights of palliative care patients in India, has been awarded Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism. Dr Rajagopal received this award in recognition of more than 20 years spent fighting conditions that cause patients to suffer severe pain unnecessarily.…

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Free training programme for doctors and nurses on paediatric palliative care

IAPC’s Children’s Palliative Care (CPC) Project is organising a free four-week training programme on paediatric palliative care for doctors and nurses at Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. The three-day contact session from September 29 to October 1, 2014 will be followed by two weeks of home-based case studies and assignments. The last week will be devoted…

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IAPC and ISCCM join hands to achieve excellence in end-of-life care

In a path-breaking partnership, the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) and the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM) have joined hands with the objective of achieving excellence in end-of-life care. The integrated care plan, published in the Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine, comes four years after a study of quality of death…

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IAPC position: We oppose all forms of euthanasia

In response to the Supreme Court’s call for a debate on the issue, IAPC has proclaimed its unambiguous stand on euthanasia. The Indian Association of Palliative Care opposes euthanasia in all its forms. Good symptom control through palliative care can pre-empt the request for euthanasia. Withholding or withdrawing treatment that is medically futile does not…

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Results of June 2014 IAPC Certificate Course

Results of the June 2014 IAPC Certificate Course in Essentials of Palliative Care are announced. Congratulations to all successful candidates! Please collect your certificates and mark lists from your centre after September 20, 2014. Ready to move on to your 10-day hands-on training? As you may know, successful completion of this 10-day training at any…

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Sanjeevani to usher in community-based Palliative Care movement in West Bengal

Saif Mohammed, Institute of Palliative Medicine Over a 1000 trained volunteers have geared up to launch the first-ever community-based palliative care programme in east India, in Nadia district of West Bengal. Named Sanjeevani (“life-giving” in Sanskrit), the programme is set to commence in Krishnanagar, the district headquarters of Nadia and the neighbouring villages of Badkulla,…

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Happy Feet Home is up and running

It has been almost a year and a half since two enthusiastic entrepreneurs from Mumbai in India, Mansi Shah and Abhishek Tatiya, started work on their dream of opening India’s very first children’s hospice. Long days, endless nights, an insane amount of thinking, marathon meetings, shameless networking and countless questioning finally came to fruition on14…

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IAPC calls for national policy to attain clinical excellence in end of life care

  In its consensus position statement just published in the September-December 2014 issue of the Indian Journal of Palliative Care, the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) has asserted that access to palliative care and end of life care is a human right and that all patients are entitled to a dignified death. It has…

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MUHS includes palliative care in paediatric postgraduate curriculum

In a milestone decision the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik announced last month that palliative care will become a part of the curriculum for paediatricians in that institution. Dr Pradnya Talawadekar, Country Co-ordinator for the Children’s Palliative Care Project at the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) and Dr Maryann Muckaden, ICPCN board chairperson…

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Government consults with IAPC and other stakeholders on proposed narcotic drug rules

The Director of Narcotics, Rajesh Srivastava, and other officials of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India consulted with leaders in palliative care on July 28, 2014 on the proposed rules for narcotic drugs. Apart from drug controllers from most states, those present included Dr Nagesh Simha, President of IAPC, Dr M…

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