Introduction

The Services of Onco-Anaesthesiology, Critical Care, Pain and Palliative Medicine is an integral part of Dr BR Amedkaer Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital and National cancer Institute, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. The unit has grown over the years to provide holistic pain management of the whole of this cancer centre in addition to providing anesthesia, Intensive care and Palliative Medicine services. The Unit of Anesthesiology was upgraded to Department of Onco-Anaesthesia and Palliative Medicine in June 2015. The Department is headed by Dr (Prof) Sushma Bhatnagar. The department have well trained faculty (Dr Sushma Bhatnagar, Dr Seema Mishra, Dr Rakesh Garg, Dr Nishkarsh Gupta, Dr Vinod Kumar, Dr SachidanandJeeBharati, Dr BrajeshRatre) and provide services to anesthesiology, intensive care, pain and palliative care. All of them are professionally qualified anesthesiologists and critical care physicians and have gained experience as palliative care personnel in the advanced cancer patients referred for pain and other symptom management.

            The mission of the Department is to provide state-of-art and comprehensive care for patients with cancer with both curative and palliative intent. It includes services for various diagnostic interventions, surgical procedures, pain and palliative procedures. The department provides round the clock services for acute and chronic pain management as well. The department has six bedded intensive care unit which provides care for critically ill patients and six bedded palliative care ward for palliative care of oncology patients.

            Since the inception of the unit way back in 1990s, the unit has grown in all aspects of the care including anaesthesia, intensive care, pain and palliative care. Because of the holistic contribution and increase in faculty strength, unit was upgraded  to department. The Department has its regular academic activities and also pursuing various research activities in the fields of Cancer Pain, Palliative Care and Perioperative Medicine for proposed benefits for the patient. These research activities provides beneficial. The department has developed protocol and has structured SOPs for better patient management. The department organizes CMEs, conferences and workshops on regular basis. The unit also organizes certificate course in Palliative Care twice a year in the month of June and November  and Foundation course on Palliative care once in a year in the month of February.

            The department provides comprehensive care for the surgical procedures. We have pre-anaesthetic clinic for preoperative evaluation and optimization for surgical interventions. The operating rooms are well equipped with state-of-art infrastructure including anesthesia workstations and other ancillary equipments like invasive monitoring devices, intubating fiberscope, ultrasound machines etc. The centre has well equipped recovery area providing immediate care to postsurgical patients. All surgical patients receives acute pain management services round the clock supervised by the faculty. Our department provides point of care technology with ultrasound for diagnostic (vascular access, nerve blocks, volume responsiveness assessment, and for therapeutic purposes (pleurocentesis, optimization of cardiovascular function in various types of shock) in the operating room, palliative care ward and Intensive care

            The department provide emergency services including airway management and ventilatory support to patients admitted with other specialties like surgical oncology, medical oncology and radiation oncology. The services for management of pain due to chemotherapy or radiation therapy are also provided to these departments round the clock.

            The intensive care unit is six bedded and provide care for patients after the surgery and critically ill patients from surgical oncology, medical oncology and radiation oncology departments. The ICU is well equipped with state-of-art technology and human manpower. The nursing staff and physiotherapist are well trained and provide care round the clock.

            We have also run  OPDs 6 days in a week where we examine and treat cancer pain patients and admit patients if required to the palliative care. In theses OPDs we also patients for pre anesthesia check ups. The six bedded palliative care unit provides total in-hospital care to cancer patients for palliative care management. The ward has an adjoining procedure room which provides well equipped place for interventions in palliative care patients for symptom and pain management. The ward has well trained nursing staff and physiotherapist for improving the quality of life for cancer palliative care.

            The department has been sanctioned two academic courses - and first batch of these DM and MD candidates started from January 2016. The department also organizes certificate course in Palliative care every six months.

            The department has been designated as WHO collaborating centre for Training and and Education in Palliative Care (WHO CC IND-163). 

The department had been designated as ESMO Designated Centre of Integrative Oncology and Palliative Care.

Contact Us

Dr. Sushma Bhatnagar, MD
Professor and Head

Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mobile: +91-9811326453

 

For website related queries:

Dr Rakesh Garg

Mobile 9810394950

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.