GUWAHATI, April 17 � Deepsikha, a cancer care foundation, has started the process of setting up a home for terminally ill cancer patients at Vijoynagar near Mirza and the project is expected to be completed within the next couple of years. The construction of the four-storey building has started and once completed, it will be able to house 50 terminally ill patients.
Chairman of Deepsikha, Debashis Sarma told The Assam Tribune that the terminally ill patients need special care, including palliative care and efforts would be made to provide such care to the patients in the home, which will be named �Tiji Devi Shanti Sthal� in the name of the mother of Babulal Jain, who donated the plot of land for the project.
Sarma said that the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the State Bank of India have already assured to provide funds for the construction of the building, while a number of individual donors have also come forward to lend a helping hand. Deepsikha will also approach Oil India Limited and other organisations for help in this regard. Sarma revealed that they are not handling funds on their own and requested the donors to donate in kind.
The Deepsikha chairman revealed that the building would have prayer halls and trained counsellors would be engaged for counselling the patients in their last days. He said that as families of some terminally ill patients would not like to keep patients alone, special family units including kitchens would be made available in the home. He said that the patients would be kept in the home free of cost and Deepsikha is planning to maintain the home with donations.
Sarma said that the home would require at least two doctors including one resident doctor, two counsellors, five nurses specially trained in palliative care and 10 grade IV staff. He said that he had already spoken to a few reputed medicine companies of the state to sponsor the salaries of the staff and some have already agreed to do so. One doctor has already offered voluntary service and he hoped that some others would follow suit for the benefit of the terminally ill patients in the days to come. Efforts would also be made to bring counsellors from other parts of the country from time to time for counselling the terminally ill patients.
