Building Palliative Care Capacity - A Rapid Evaluation of Services in Eleven Hospitals in Northern India

This study aimed to evaluate palliative care capacity across eleven northern Indian hospitals whose physicians and nurses had undergone training as part of the Cancer Treatment Centers (CTC) program. An online rapid evaluation using The "Standards audit tool for Indian palliative care programs" developed by the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) was done to audit specific aspects of palliative care delivery including staff training, recordkeeping, availability of morphine, and continuing professional development programs. A descriptive analysis of the data was conducted. Additional information was obtained through surveys, site visits, document reviews, and interviews with program leaders. For each site, the researchers determined to what extent the program met the set IAPC of the Standards Audit Tool. The eleven centers satisfied most of the essential criteria and some of the desirable criteria. One center did not have an in-house access to oral morphine. Some of the lacunae were inadequate provision of home care, unavailability of care after business hours, place of multidisciplinary collaboration, and involvement of community and volunteers. There was evidence of teaching, training, team health, audit, and administrative support. These hospitals were delivering good quality palliative care as per IAPC standards in parts of northern India that are underserved. There is scope for improvement in the outreach to the community, and a more multidisciplinary approach is required.