Palliative care delivery in India during COVID-19 pandemic: role of faith-based hospitals - a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic challenged palliative care (PC) services globally. We studied the ways healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in faith-based hospitals (FBHs) experienced and adapted care through the pandemic, and how this impacted patients with PC needs. METHODS: In-depth interviews were conducted with HCPs from FBHs serving rural and urban population across India. Thematic analysis was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 10 in-depth interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, first wave (4), second wave (4) and between them (2). HCPs described fear and stigma in the community early in the pandemic. Migrant workers struggled, many local health services closed and cancer care was severely affected. Access and availability of healthcare services was better during the second wave. During both waves, FBHs provided care for non-COVID patients, earning community appreciation. For HCPs, the first wave entailed preparation and training; the second wave was frightening with scarcity of hospital beds, oxygen and many deaths. Eight of the 10 FBHs provided COVID-19 care. PC teams adapted services providing teleconsultations, triaging home visits, delivering medications, food at home, doing online teaching for adolescents, raising funds. Strengths of FBHs were dedicated teamwork, staff care, quick response and adaptations to community needs, building on established community relationship. CONCLUSION: FBHs remained open and continued providing consistent, good quality, person-centred care during the pandemic. Challenges were overcome innovatively using novel approaches, often achieving good outcomes despite limited resources. By defining and redefining quality using a PC lens, FBHs strengthened patient care services.

'COVID-19 and palliative medicine: faith-based hospitals in India'.

OBJECTIVES: Faith-based organisations (FBOs) in India provide health services particularly to marginalised communities. We studied their preparedness and delivery of palliative care during COVID-19 as part of a mixed-method study. We present the results of an online questionnaire. METHODS: All FBOs providing palliative care in India were invited to complete an online questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was undertaken. RESULTS: Response rate was 46/64 (72%); 44 provided palliative care; 30/44 (68%) were in rural or semiurban areas with 10-2700 beds. Fifty-two per cent (23/44) had dedicated palliative care teams and 30/44 (68%) provided it as part of general services; 17/44 (39%) provided both. 29/44 (66%) provided palliative care for cancer patients; 17/44 (34%) reported that this was more than half their workload.The pandemic led to reduced clinical work: hospital 36/44 (82%) and community 40/44 (91%); with reduction in hospital income for 41/44 (93%). 18/44 (44%) were designated government COVID-19 centres; 11/40 (32%) had admitted between 1 and 2230 COVID-19 patients.COVID-19 brought challenges: 14/44 (32%) lacked personal protective equipment; 21/44 (48%) had reduced hospital supplies and 19/44 (43%) lacked key medications including morphine. 29/44 (66%) reported reduction in palliative care work; 7/44 (16%) had stopped altogether. Twenty-three per cent (10/44) reported redeployment of palliative care teams to other work. For those providing, palliative care 32/37 (86%) was principally for non-COVID patients; 13/37 (35%) cared for COVID-19 patients. Service adaptations included: teleconsultation, triaged home visits, medication delivery at home and food supply. CONCLUSIONS: FBOs in India providing palliative care had continued to do so despite multiple challenges. Services were adapted to enable ongoing patient care. Further research is exploring the effects of COVID-19 in greater depth.

Livelihood intervention and mental well-being among women living with HIV in Delhi.

ABSTRACTPoverty-alleviation programmes aimed to improved mental well-being among persons living with HIV (PLWH) in low and middle income countries have underscored the importance of understanding how and why such programmes work. We present findings from a six-month ethnographic process evaluation of Kiran, an economic livelihood programme locally designed to improve mental well-being among women affected by HIV in Delhi, India. In addition to benefits of improved economic standing, we found that supportive relationships cultivated among participants (n = 9) and with providers (n = 3) provided respite from worry about their illness and reframed what was relationally and practically possible in the context of living with HIV. In acquiring marketable craft skills with peers, participants challenged internalized scripts of being socially devalued and regained agency about their abilities to contribute to their community and support their children's immediate and future needs. We found that the benefits of Kiran weighed less on the direct alleviation of mental distress and more on the instillation of hope for their children. Our findings exemplify the importance of re-visiting a priori theories that inform interventions for PLWH and highlight the methodological merits of ethnographic approaches that underscore how theory and intervention praxis are bidirectionally informed.

Poverty Reduction in India through Palliative Care: A Pilot Project.

INTRODUCTION: EMMS International and Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA) implemented a pilot project, poverty reduction in India through palliative care (PRIPCare). A total of 129 interviews with patients and family enrolled in palliative care at three EHA hospitals (in Fatehpur, Lalitpur and Utraula) and staff discussions established that 66% of palliative care patients had lost livelihoods due to illness, 26% of patients' families had members who had lost livelihoods due to the illness, 98% of enrolled households had debts, 59% had loans for which they had sold assets, 69% of households took out debt after their family member fell ill, many patients do not know about government benefits and lack necessary documents, many village headmen require bribes to give people access to benefits, and many bereaved women and children lose everything. Palliative care enabled 85% of patients and families to spend less on medicines, 31% of patients received free medicines, all patients reduced use of out-patient departments (OPDs), 20% reduced use of inpatient departments (IPDs), and therefore spent less on travel, 8% of patients had started earning again due to improved health, members of 10% of families started earning again, and one hospital educated 171 village headmen and increased by 5% the number of patients and their families receiving government benefits. If only 0.7% of needy adults are receiving palliative care, these benefits could be delivered to 143 times more families, targeted effectively at poverty reduction. Palliative care has great scope to reduce that most desperate poverty in India caused by chronic illness. CONTEXT: This article concerns a study by the UK NGO EMMS International and Indian NGO EHA, to assess whether palliative care reduces household poverty. AIMS: EHA staff had noticed that many patients spend a lot on ineffective treatment before joining palliative care, many families do not know their entitlement to government healthcare subsidies or government pensions, and many bereaved widows and children are disinherited. Convinced that palliative care can address these, EMMS and EHA implemented PRIPCare - a pilot project. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: EHA began training staff for rural palliative care in north India in 2009, and started its first palliative care service at Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital, Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh, in 2010, with home-based care backed by hospital out- and in-patient care. With EMMS support since 2012, EHA's palliative care service functions in eight hospitals in six states and Delhi. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: EMMS International provided the concept, commissioned the study and reviewed the report. EHA hired and guided a consultant, who piloted a questionnaire in EHA's Delhi Shalom Centre, and conducted 129 in-depth, one-to-one interviews in July and August 2015 with patients or close family members enrolled in the palliative care of three EHA rural hospitals, in Fatehpur, Lalitpur and Utraula. This represents 83% of patients in these hospitals, which in July 2015 was 79 patients in Lalitpur, 39 in Utraula, and 38 in Fatehpur. The questionnaire concerned illness, cost of treatment, use of government benefits, and family economic status. The consultant held focus group discussions with palliative care staff in these three hospitals. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: An intern in EHA's Shalom Centre in Delhi entered data into Excel. The consultant analysed it using Excel. RESULTS: Poverty of palliative care patients 18% of households enrolled for palliative care earn