• Jaydeep Sengupta and Suhita Chopra Chatterjee.
• Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India. Electronic address: senjaydeep@gmail.com.
• J Crit Care. 2017 Jun 1; 39: 11-17.

PurposeThis study critically examines the available policy guidelines on integration of palliative and end-of-life care in Indian intensive care units to appraise their congruence with Indian reality.Materials And MethodsSix position statements and guidelines issued by the Indian Society for Critical Care Medicine and the Indian Association of Palliative Care from 2005 till 2015 were examined. The present study reflects upon the recommendations suggested by these texts.ResultAlthough the policy documents conform to the universally set norms of introducing palliative and end-of-life care in intensive care units, they hardly suit Indian reality. The study illustrates local complexities that are not addressed by the policy documents. This include difficulties faced by intensivists and physicians in arriving at a consensus decision, challenges in death prognostication, hurdles in providing compassionate care, providing "culture-specific" religious and spiritual care, barriers in effective communication, limitations of documenting end-of-life decisions, and ambiguities in defining modalities of palliative care. Moreover, the policy documents largely dismiss special needs of elderly patients.ConclusionThe article suggests the need to reexamine policies in terms of their attainability and congruence with Indian reality.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

19 keywords...

hide…