This document provides information about palliative care from Dr. Indranil Khan, a palliative care provider in Kolkata, India. It defines palliative care as a holistic approach to improving quality of life for patients with chronic or life-threatening illnesses and their families through management of physical, psychological, social and spiritual problems. It outlines who can benefit from palliative care, the dimensions of care provided, components of care like home visits and access to pain medications, the multidisciplinary palliative care team, and common myths about palliative care.

1. Dr.Indranil Khan
Palliative Care Provider- Kolkata
www.indranilkhan.com
Phone: +91-9831534166
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

2. There’s always something we can do..
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3. What is Palliative Care
Palliative Care is a holistic approach that consists of:
 Early Identification of Physical, Psychological, Social
and Spiritual problems
 Proper Assessment &
 Management of these problems; leading to
 Improvement of Quality of Life of patients and their
families.
www.indranilkhan.com

4. Who Needs Palliative Care
 Patients diagnosed with:
 A chronic disease where treatment outcome is uncertain
(like in cancer), or
 A disease which has a long course (chronic kidney
disease or chronic liver disease), or
 A condition where optimum treatment is not feasible
(like in a bed-ridden patient who can’t be offered
cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs).
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5. Dimensions:
 Physical: like alleviating severe pain (common if the
cancer spreads to the bone) through appropriate
painkiller tablets or long-acting transdermal patches
 Psychological: addressing the anxiety (of treatment
consequences) or depression (associated with a cancer
diagnosis)
 Social: performing family responsibilities, sex life
 Spiritual: meditation, yoga and prayers are often
powerful adjuncts to standard treatment
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6. Components:
 Home Visit (must- the motto is to ease out the pain
and not to add further pain of transport hassle of such
a patient)
 Access to Drugs (Opioid analgesics like Morphine
tablets, Buprenorphine patches are in very restricted
supply due to legal provisions to contain drug abuse)
 Time (Sufficient to listen to the patient’s complaints)
 Touch (A doctor’s physical touch is reassuring for the
patient)
 Non-Invasive (Painful invasive procedures avoided).
www.indranilkhan.com

7. www.indranilkhan.com
The Touch of Assurance Cancer Patient Doing Yoga

8. The Team:
 Palliative care is successful through proper team-work
only.
 A palliative care team comprises of:
 A Doctor trained in palliative care
 A trained Nurse
 A trained Paramedic
 And most importantly..
 Your family and friends without whose 24*7 support any
palliative care service will fall flat.
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9. Which Death You Will Prefer
Death is the only constant in your life- the only thing
that will occur with 100% probability.
So which death will be more acceptable?
A painful death with iv channels, urinary catheters,
central venous lines, hourly injections in hospital or,
A painless death at home in the midst of your near ones?
www.indranilkhan.com

10. www.indranilkhan.com
She Chooses A Smiling Death Ditching The Painful IV Lines and Tubes

11. When Does Palliative Care Start
 Efforts to improve the quality of life in a cancer patient
should start from the very the diagnosis of cancer is
made.
 In a patient of liver cirrhosis, however, palliative care is
indispensable in the later stage of the disease process
as in End Stage Liver Disease when repeated
abdominal draining of ascites fluid becomes
indispensable
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12. Myths Busted..
 Palliative care doesn’t mean ‘end-of-life’ care.
 It aims to “improve Quality of Life” in patients fighting
a life-threatening illness like cancer.
 It doesn’t replace standard curative treatment like
chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
 It’s complimentary to your standard treatment and
aims to reduce the pains (side-effects) of such radical
treatment.
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13. “Let’s add Life to our Days and
not merely Days to our Life.”
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14. Thank You
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