How terminally ill can be given dignified death

After End-Of-Life Care Policy, AIIMS Sees Increase In Referral Count, But India Needs Uniform Policy For All

- DurgeshNandan Jha

New Delhi: Before September 2019, when the End-of-Life Care (EOLC) policy wasn’t in place at AIIMS, the institute’s palliative care division used to get around six referrals each month from various departments. The data shared by the hospital after the implementation of EOLC shows the number rose to 13 referrals a month between September 2019 and February 2020.

EOLC refers to care given to people who are near the end of life. The AIIMS policy, prepared by a team of experts under the chairmanship of the institute director, Dr Randeep Guleria, involves timely identification of patients who may benefit from EOLC by the primary physician and a second physician. These can include patients expected to survive for a few days or weeks, those for whom clinicians predict a low chance of achieving an acceptable quality of life in terms of the patient’s values and patients with post-cardiac arrest status with poor neurological outcomes.