Building Palliative Care Capacity in North India: A Multi-Center Approach

Abstract

Context: In low-resource settings like Northern India, palliative care providers often lack adequate training, institutional support, and interdisciplinary collaboration that are indispensable for effective implementation.

Objectives: This article highlights strategies to build palliative care capacity through education, interdisciplinary collaboration, and system-level interventions in Northern India. The article describes a palliative care capacity-building project executed from 2023 through 2025. It presents scalable approaches to overcome barriers to palliative care, enhance palliative care competencies, and expand palliative care infrastructure.

Material & method: The project proceeded in three phases and began with the selection and development of nine centers of excellence (Phase I), followed by associating each center with ten district hospitals to embed palliative care within the region (Phase II). Phase III focused on palliative care training for providers in 90 district hospitals. The project assessed capacity and quality improvements at the centers and evaluated providers' palliative care knowledge post-training in the district hospitals.

Results: The centers of excellence reported substantial capacity and continued improvements in palliative care delivery throughout the project. Physicians and nurses affiliated with the district hospital showed significant and lasting knowledge gains after palliative care training.

Conclusion: These results demonstrate significant progress in palliative care capacity with the region, but they, also, underscore the need for ongoing efforts in training, research, and systematic record-keeping. The project's success in its three phased approach illustrates the potential for education, collaboration, and system-level support to strengthen palliative care capacity.

Keywords: India; capacity building; education; palliative care; quality; training.