Hyderabad: Less than two per cent of patients who experience intense pain, especially in end-stage cases, are able to access opoid drugs for palliative care, though it has been made easier due to recent amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The main issue is that these are also habit forming drugs.
Though parliament has passed the amendments to the legislation, the state governments are yet to implement them. Easier availability of opiods will help thousands of patients get pain relief, especially in end-stage cases.
The most important segment which nows requires end-stage care is cancer patients for whom pain relief has become very important. Experts state that morphine is being manufactured and supplied only by the government but doctors have to prescribe it so that it can be administered to the patients.
A senior pharmacist who is in the palliative care unit in a private hospital said on condition of anonymity: “There is a tendency among doctors and hospitals to go for expensive alternatives. Morphine from poppy grown in India is manufactured by the Government Opium and Alkaloid Works. But there is a due procedure to follow, and the doctors and hospitals have to be involved in procuring the opiod drugs. They do not want to take the chance and prescribe drugs which are readily available without legal tangles.”
International agencies have chartered out a ‘morphine manifesto’ and urged palliative care units to access opiod drugs to make care inexpensive and less painful. The NDPS Act now has uniform rules for access to opiod drugs and providing care.
