A palliative care centre built at a cost of more than Rs. 350 million with donations from local and overseas supporters was opened in Chavakachcheri, Jaffna, on Saturday, offering free care to patients with serious and life-limiting illnesses.
Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa opened the Comfort Care Home at Sarasalai in Chavakachcheri. The centre focuses on comfort, pain relief and emotional support for patients in the advanced stages of illnesses that include cancer and organ failure.
The facility has 20 private rooms, pain management services, oxygen therapy, round-the-clock nursing care and a spiritual garden meant to support patients’ mental well-being. Patients also receive meals prepared on medical recommendations. All services are free of charge.
The project was led by Dr. K. Devakanthan, a retired nephrologist who lives in the United States and is the founder and chairman of Comfort Care Home. More than an acre of land for the centre was donated by the family of the late teacher Kanagasabai.
Speaking at the opening, Jayatissa said modern medicine had made significant progress in treating disease, but there were situations in which a cure was no longer possible. He said that giving such patients pain relief, emotional comfort, dignity and compassionate care remained an essential responsibility of the healthcare system.
The Minister said palliative care facilities could reduce the financial and emotional burden on families, and could let government hospitals use their resources for patients who need emergency treatment. He said he hoped the centre would serve as a model for similar facilities in other parts of Sri Lanka, and pledged the Health Ministry’s support for its continued operation.
Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar, Northern Province Governor Nagalingam Vethanayahan, healthcare professionals, the project’s founders and donors attended the ceremony.
Background
Palliative care is care for people with serious illnesses that cannot be cured. Its aim is to relieve pain and other symptoms and to support patients and their families, rather than to treat the underlying disease. It can be given alongside other treatment or on its own, in hospitals, at home or in specialised centres.
Chavakachcheri is a town in the Jaffna District of the Northern Province. The Comfort Care Home was built with private donations rather than government funds, according to the organisers.
What it means
For families in Jaffna and the surrounding districts, the centre offers a place where a seriously ill relative can receive nursing, pain control and oxygen therapy without charge. Care of this kind can be costly when families have to arrange it privately, and the Minister said such facilities can ease the financial and emotional strain on households.
The Minister also said that taking some long-term patients out of general wards could free hospital resources for emergency cases. Whether other districts will receive similar centres has not been announced; Jayatissa said only that he hoped this one would serve as a model.
