Report Find "Unbearable Pain", Underused Pain Meds in India
A recent report by Human Rights Watch found an alarming number of Indian cancer and HIV patients are left to suffer without adequate, if any, pain control. The 108 page report, released on October 28, 2009 found that "many major cancer hospitals in India do not provide patients with morphine, despite the fact that more than 70 percent of their patients are incurable and likely to require pain treatment and palliative care." According to Diederik Lohman, senior health and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch:
"India's health care system abandons so many patients to severe pain. They are left to suffer; many told us that their pain was so bad they would prefer to die."
The report identified three key factors responsible for this underuse of affordable and effective pain control:
- Restrictive drug regulations in India: Many Indian states have excessively strict narcotics regulations that make it very difficult for hospitals and pharmacies to get morphine. In 1998, the central government recommended that states adopt modified regulations, but more than half of India's states have not done so.
- The failure to train doctors: Most medical students and young doctors receive no training on pain treatment and palliative care because the government does not include such instruction in relevant curricula. As a result, most doctors in India simply do not know how to assess or treat severe pain.
- Poor integration of palliative care into health services: National cancer and AIDS control programs do not contain meaningful palliative care components, thus depriving such care of public funds and relegating it to second-tier status.
Interestingly, India is one of the largest producers of Opium, the key ingredient for Morphine. Yet, the majority of the crop is exported while millions of Indian people suffer unnecessarily without adequate pain control.
Read the full Human Rights Watch report, "Unbearable Pain: India's Obligation to Ensure Palliative Care"
This is a horrible story. I am glad that Human Rights Watch is looking into it. India sounds like a terrible place to die.