Striving Hard to improve quality Of human lives.
Years Of Experience
Patients Treated
Programs
Our Story
How did I get motivated? – From Dr. Mallika Tiruvadanan
I could clearly see the GAP in our ‘medical’ treatment – the CARE necessary to treat the patient as a ‘WHOLE PERSON’ was missing! I was motivated to educate myself in the subject of ‘Palliative Medicine’.
After formal training, I started the Trust in the year 2000 along with like-minded colleagues, registered it on 21 st September as a Charitable Organization to lessen the financial burden to patients and their families. We started the practice in ‘Sundaravadanan Nursing Home’, named after my father-in-law Dr. B.M. Sundaravadanan. I named the trust after his wife, Mrs. Lakshmikantham, who was his pillar of strength with a natural tendency to give. Hence the name ‘Lakshmi’, denoting “Giving Nature”. We want to give to society how much ever we can to ease suffering.
Our Milestones
21 September, 2000
Lakshmi Pain and Palliative Care Clinic registered as a Charitable Trust
21 Sept 2000 – Lakshmi Pain and Palliative Care Clinic (LPAPCC) registered as a Charitable Trust with the
mission to treat pain and other distressing physical symptoms and relieve the emotional, social and spiritual distress of patients with cancer and other chronic diseases, with the aim to improve the quality of life without adding to their financial burden.
Dr. Mallika started her practice of Palliative Care from December 1999 after her initial training at Calicut Medical College Hospital. So even before registering the Trust, she took part in a Government Workshop on ‘Opioid Availability’ conducted in April 2000, in Chennai to amend existing complex narcotics Rules in the State. Following this, the Rules were amended successfully the same year – a significant achievement which meant that from then on, it would be a simple (previously complicated) licensing system for doctors to procure tablet Morphine easily to treat severe pain in cancer patients.
August, 2005
Dept. of Health agreed to conduct and sponsor our ‘6-day Foundation Course in Palliative Care’ for government doctors.
Our regular meetings since 2003 with the Dept. of Health, Govt. of Tamilnadu, to help develop palliative care in the Tamilnadu State bore fruit when the Dept. of Health agreed to conduct and sponsor our ‘6- day Foundation Course in Palliative Care’ for government doctors. 28 doctors from the 14 medical colleges in the state attended the course from 08.08.2005 to 13.08.2005. Mr. N Thalavai Sundaram, the then Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Tamilnadu gave the certificates at the valedictory function.
20 July, 2007
‘Red Letter Day’ in the road map of our trust!
An SOP was brought out by the Director, Drugs Control, Chennai, which was the highlight of a meeting held on 20th July 2007. This was following our meeting in March the same year, in which our repeated pleas to implement the amended rules were finally given importance to. The release of this ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ made it a simple ‘one-window’ task for procuring, storing and dispensing oral morphine in accordance with the modified narcotic rules of Tamilnadu. Same meeting arranged by the Director, we addressed about 70 members of the Indian Medical Association to make known the importance of palliative care and encourage them to inculcate into their practice.
June, 2010
Dr. MGR Medical University to start a Course in ‘Fellowship in Palliative Medicine’
Education in Palliative Care being the need of the hour, we had repeated meetings with the Vice-Chancellor, The Tamilnadu Dr. MGR Medical University to start a Course in ‘Fellowship in Palliative Medicine’ This was successfully announced in June 2010 – thanks to combined efforts with the Vice-Chancellor and his team. We were instrumental in preparing the syllabus and criteria for the course. With the same aim of educating young doctors, in mind, at the request of the University, we conducted One-Day Workshops on the various aspects of Palliative Medicine for CRRI (Compulsory Rotating Resident Internees) at Govt. Rajaji Hospital, Madurai and at Stanley Medical College, Chennai It was a pilot project of the Tamilnadu Dr. M.G.R Medical University for the inclusion of palliative care in the UG curriculum and at the CRRI level.
17 January, 2017
An opportunity to achieve our Vision of developing Palliative Care at the community level
An opportunity to achieve our Vision of developing Palliative Care at the community level in the state came true when we were invited by the National Health Mission (NHM) to train doctors and nurses from the 32 district headquarters hospitals!
18 -27 Jan 2017 – We were the faculty for the first 10-day training of doctors and nurses from 10 Govt. hospitals across Tamilnadu, in the various aspects of Palliative Care with special emphasis on Chronic Pain Relief. We conducted the training at the Egmore Training Center of the Dept. of Health and Family Welfare. Following this, we have conducted similar training courses (2017 to 2019) for doctors and nurses from the rest of the District hospitals. The NHM planned this training to start palliative care clinics in all these districts for which it gave total support for the infrastructure in setting them up. Thanks to the NHM and our training, palliative care is made available to the communities in these districts! More areas need and hope to be covered in the
near future.
Our Trustees
Mrs. Sangeetha Vadanan
Dr. S. Thayalan
Dr. Mallika Tiruvadanan
Late Dr. A. K. Mrunalini
Dr. Amrutha Deivanayagam