Jharkhand-Bihar’s first free home palliative-care services to provide psychosocial and nursing support to cancer patients was launched here on Wednesday.

The facility, named Pritpal Cansupport Home Palliative Care Services (PCHPCS), would be supported by Michigan-based Suri Seva Foundation and managed by New Delhi-based CanSupport, which provides free home palliative services for cancer patients at Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

“Home palliative care is the need of the hour and in CanSupport, the foundation has a worthy and accomplished partner who has been in this field for over 25 years. We hope that the collaboration would make a difference in the lives of patients suffering from terminal ailments, who from now on, may not find it necessary to travel long distances to seek medical attention,” wrote US-based Harcharan S. Suri in a message read out by his nephew Kulvin Suri. Kulvin has retired as a senior executive from Tata Steel last year and is currently based in Calcutta.

Parents of Harcharan were residents of Jamshedpur.

“CanSupport grew out of the personal experience of our founder president Harmala Gupta, a survivor of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. We focus on providing palliative and supportive care services to cancer patients and their families. Our wide ranging programmes are designed to help patients throughout their cancer journey. The support extends even after the death of the patients through bereavement and rehabilitative support to the families.

“All our services are free. We are the largest standalone home-based palliative care organisation in the country providing care to about 3,000 patients through 28 multidisciplinary teams of highly trained and committed professionals. We have one team in Jamshedpur comprising a physician, nurse-counsellor, nurse and midwife and a public relations officer. Over time, we plan to introduce more home care teams,” said Dr Ambika Rajvanshi, chief executive officer of CanSupport.

“We are excited to widen our services to the first such facility in Jharkhand-Bihar at Jamshedpur and are open for collaboration with funding organisations at other cities of Jharkhand who can meet the financial expenses of our team,” Rajvanshi added.

One team’s annual expense is between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh and can look after 90 patients at any point of time.

Tata Steel vice-president (corporate services) Chanakya Chaudhary, who is also vice-president of Meherbai Tata Memorial Hospital, appreciated the initiative by Suri Seva Foundation and the objective of CanSupport of adding “life to the days of patients” battling end-of-life ailment and conveyed best wishes to the Pritpal CanSupport Home Palliative Care services team.

He also announced the expansion plans of existing accommodation facilities for attendants of cancer patients near Meherbai Tata Memorial Hospital.

The Jamshedpur helpline number is 9289410091.