SINCE 2013

Bangladesh

A decade-long effort has helped palliative care take root for good

country updates

Lien Collab has transformed the palliative care landscape by strengthening existing services and sowing the seeds for more care centres. Morphine is now more available and there is a push for palliative medicine to be offered in local medical colleges too.

Dr Sushma Bhatnagar

Professor and Head of Anesthesiology, Pain and Palliative Care

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India

Our IMpact

50

Participants

trained in palliative care services

7

Institutions

involved in palliative care services

Our programme started in 2013 when 6 volunteer faculty —3 doctors and 3 nurses from Australia, India and Singapore—began teaching at the Palliative Care Unit of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and at the oncology ward of the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital in Dhaka. Over the next four years, a total of 6 training modules were successfully organised and 50 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and social workers eventually benefited from it.

Since then the participants of our Train-the-Trainers programme in Bangladesh have continued receiving training through weekly clinical case discussions. In July 2022, they also held a training sessions with the team from India to learn from one another.

In the same year, a faculty team consisting of Dr. Akhilesh (Singapore), Dr. Venga (Singapore), and Dr. Pijush (Australia) also successfully completed a coaching session of the MD students from the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the BSMMU.

On the Ground

Key Achievements

Palliative Medicine is now recognised as a Medical Specialty, with the first Professor in Palliative Medicine appointed in BSMMU, and 13 MD trainees in 2018.
When the project began, access to morphine was very restricted. Today there are 3 private companies producing oral morphine at affordable prices.
The initial team has pulled together public outreach programs on World Hospice Palliative Care Day and started pediatric palliative care training around the country.