Bathinda, Nov. 2 -- The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda, is embarking on two ambitious projects in patient care. Taking a cue from the Kerala government's successful palliative care model, the Bathinda-based central institute is setting up what it describes as North India's first hospice care facility. Executive director Ratan Gupta said AIIMS is engaging experts from Kerala to sensitise its radiation oncology department to take the lead in providing clinical and personal support to people with terminal illness. Gupta said this is the first time an AIIMS in the country is setting up a hospice facility focused on providing comfort and quality of life for patients in the final stages of life. He said patients enrolled in hospice care were more likely to have better symptom and pain management assisted by trained caregivers. "A three-member team from Kerala is expected to arrive here in the first week of December to enable the Bathinda institute to roll out a dedicated hospice centre. A fully air-conditioned building that was earlier used as the office of the company that constructed the AIIMS complex will be utilised for the hospice facility," Gupta said. The AIIMS administration will rope in volunteers for the project who would provide patients and their families emotional and spiritual support. "Developing a hospice care centre is our dream project as every terminally ill patient deserves dignity in his final days. Volunteers will be the backbone of the initiative. Patients suffering from cancer and other terminal conditions can stay here for the remaining period of their lives," he said. Separately, AIIMS, in association with Faridkot-based Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), is training 6,000 persons under a geriatric and elderly care programme launched as part of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). Senior faculty member and nodal officer for the project, Dr Kanwaljit Singh Kaura, said the programme is being run at nine government institutes in Punjab. He said that anyone with a Class 12 certificate in any stream and having no caregiving experience is eligible to enrol in the 1,470-hour programme free of cost. Kaura said people from diverse fields, including midwives and security guards at AIIMS, had enrolled to upskill themselves for better employment opportunities."The patient care sector requires trained professionals. The National Skill Development Corporation has mandated AIIMS, Bathinda, to train 25,000 persons, and we are in the final stage of training nearly 6,000 in the first batch," he said. Kaura, head of the urology department at AIIMS, said the demand for elderly care was rising in India, and the limited availability of nursing professionals is insufficient to meet it. "The care sector has remained ignored in the country despite a huge demand. Earlier, nursing professionals were expected to cater to the needs of elderly or ill patients. The new platform will train youth to meet the demand," Kaura said....