Palliative care is an approach of care to improve the quality of life of terminally-ill patients, and an important part of holistic management of cancer as well as many other terminal illnesses. Palliative care is a foreign concept for most Nepalese physicians and patients. However, due to the increasing burden of chronic illnesses including cancer, the need for palliative care services are very high in this region. We started the hospice and palliative care services alongside the cancer prevention and early detection program in August 2018.
A general practice physician who we hired in August 2018 to lead the cancer prevention, early detection, and palliative care program, has completed the online training on palliative care offered by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC). The physician and nurses received further training on-site in December 2018 from Dr. Derrel Walker, Board Member at the Binaytara Foundation and a palliative care physician in Boise, Idaho, USA.