JAIPUR: The Khailshankar Durlabhji Avedana Ashram, a hospice for terminally ill cancer patients functioning here since 1999, has crossed the mark of 1-lakh patient day services rendered to those suffering from the dreaded disease. The Avedana Ashram provides palliative care to cancer patients in their final days.

As many as 3,245 patients, including 1,189 women, were given terminal medical support till December 2005 by the hospice, attached to Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital which is the biggest private hospital in the State. The longest stay of a patient was over two years, the average stay being 31 days.

The advisor to the Avedana Ashram, S.G. Kabra, said here on Saturday that the hospice had recently launched two new projects for promotion of voluntary blood donation and prevention of thalassemia. These services are a new addition to the dedicated nursing care by Missionary Sisters and expert medical supervision adding life to the days of patients.

The SDM Hospital's blood bank has been converted into a public blood bank to extend the facilities to patients in all hospitals in Jaipur. The ''Blood the Lifeline'' project has upgraded safety procedures and quality assurance and helped increase the proportion of voluntary blood donation to over 30 per cent.

Dr. Kabra said over 10,500 blood units were collected in the 188 blood donation camps organised by the Avedana Ashram, while 28,000 component units were issued without replacement.

Drive against thalassemia

As part of the thalassemia prevention programme, a campaign has been launched to survey, detect and identify thalassemia traits in the population and counsel the identified individuals to avoid birth of a thalassemic child.

Dr. Kabra said nearly 3,600 trait screening tests had been conducted under the programme.

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