Travel date: October 18, 2016
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 21st International Congress on Palliative Care
Origin: Dhaka, Bangladesh / Destination: Montreal, Canada
I am a palliative Physician and have been working in palliative care for last six years. In 2009, I started to work in palliative care in the ASHIC palliative care unit which is the first and only pediatric palliative care in Bangladesh. After that 2014, December I founded home based palliative care service which name is Hospice Bangladesh. This work was a great challenge to me especially for home care; palliative is a recent development in Bangladesh and the home care pressure is very high and the cases are very different: cancer, stroke, renal failure and others. The chance to participate in 21st International Congress on Palliative Care, supported by the IHPCA scholarship was a unique experience. It was my second international conference in palliative care where presented a poster and a great opportunity to exchange experiences and discover the most the recent advances in palliative care. First of all I thanks to IHPCA and all its members to selected me for the scholarship and chance to attend the conference in Montreal, Canada. When I reached in Montreal, I forgot my long way journey’s tiredness because there I meet those the peoples whose name are only hear I am and conversation through internet; not face to face. It was a great time for me and memorial moment in my life. During this event, I was able to hear presentations about subjects such as total care, pain management, symptom control, communication, pediatric palliative care and communication. I also presented a poster in this event which was ‘Palliative Care at home with low resources by hospice center, Dhaka, Bangladesh’. It was an exciting news for me that my poster selected for poster walking session which was a new session for the conference. By the conference I learnt more about new methods of treating and evaluating physical and psychological symptoms. I also learnt more about the patients’ and their family members’ needs both during treatment and after the death of the patient. I understand better the idea that patients and their family members are similar and have the same needs. What makes the difference is the availability of high quality palliative care.
In the conference I had the chance to connection to other countries palliative care leaders, as part of the conference event. This connecting lunch and discussion was a great experience for me to apply the knowledge to my home care activities. Hospice Bangladesh is an only palliative care center which give 24/7 home care service within Dhaka, Bangladesh. Its have 2 doctors, Medical social worker and 27 palliative care nurses. Already above 200 patients served at home in 2 years which mostly cancer patients. I will inform my colleagues about the work and achievements of our colleagues in other countries. This information may be useful to us in our lobbying and advocacy initiatives to improve and increase the availability of palliative care in our country for the benefit of our patients and their families.
I think it is a very helpful program for junior palliative care doctors. It will be more helpful if we can organize some events for fund rise and more participants will be attended such type of programs.