Media Release
Udupi, Aug 8: “In India, less than five per cent of the patients have access to palliative care and less than two per cent with severe pain needing analgesics have access to it. Not only physical suffering due to a disease but also fear of illness and impending death leads to distress, anxiety and depression. It requires specialised palliative medicine based interventions to help in managing these issues,” said Dr Naveen Salins who joined Shirdi Sai Baba Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal as Professor and Head of Palliative Medicine Department recently.
With Dr Salins joining the Centre, it will now offer full-fledged palliative care services, which will be facilitated by the Stereotactic Radiosurgery through its advanced Linear Accelerator started lately. It will also be a leading hospital for comprehensive Oncology treatment to patients including Medical, Surgical and Radiotherapy services. It also offers rehabilitation services with Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy departments offering assistance to patients.
Before Joining the Centre here, Dr Salins was functioning as Associate Professor of Palliative Medicine at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai for five years. He has worked at Lyell McEwin Hospital in South Australia as a Specialist Registrar in Palliative Medicine for three years and completed the Clinical Fellowship in Palliative Medicine.
Dr Salins was instrumental in streamlining the MD Palliative Medicine Programme at Tata Memorial Centre and he is a member of the expert group of the Medical Council of India for Palliative Medicine. He is also the Editor of the Indian Journal of Palliative Care, Director of EPEC India Programme and Tutor at School of Medicine, Cardiff University, UK. He went on to become Palliative Medicine Consultant at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Australia. After returning to India, he was the Head of Palliative Medicine and Integrative Oncology at the HCG Bangalore Institute of Oncology for about three years. Dr Salins did his MBBS and MD Internal Medicine with honours from KMC Mangaluru and Manipal.
Dr Avinash Shetty Medical Superintendent Kasturba Hospital, Manipal said, “Palliative Care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. Palliative care is ‘total care’ it requires a multi-disciplinary team to deliver it. This team usually consists of Palliative Medicine specialists, Oncologists, nurses, counsellors, dieticians and social workers who work together to maintain the best possible quality of life of patients with chronic, life-limiting and terminal illness. It aims to benefit the patients, right from diagnosis of cancer, through their difficult journey and phases of the illness, including the end of life phase. Apart from cancer, the Palliative Medicine service also specialises in seeing patients with chronic and advanced organ failures such as chronic heart failure, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease etc.”