ASIA/PAKISTAN - A mission of compassion and mercy towards the terminally ill

Hyderabad (Agenzia Fides) - "Mission is an immense work of mercy, both spiritual and material," said the doctors and nurses of St. Elizabeth Hospital, a Catholic hospital in Hyderabad (southern Pakistan), quoting Pope Francis (in his message for World Mission Day 2016, ed.) regarding a pioneering home palliative care program for the terminally ill: a unique one in Pakistan. As Father Robert McCulloch, an Australian missionary of the Missionary Society of St. Columban and vice-president of the hospital's board of directors, explains in a report to Fides, the program cares for an average of about 60 terminally ill patients per month. "It is an immense work of mercy," says the missionary. "In Pakistan, terminally ill patients are considered by hospitals only as a cost factor. Their illness is not alleviated and it is often the families who bear the high costs of treatment or pain relief," he explains.
"As early as 2005, the board of St. Elizabeth Hospital discussed the need to initiate home-based palliative care for the terminally ill in Hyderabad, a city of 4 million people in the southeast of the country. This "visionary" program has now been realized and offers the opportunity to show compassion and mercy in Pakistan in a practical and extraordinary way. At St. Elizabeth Hospital, we are convinced that the best and only answer to violence is compassion," he explains.
The palliative care team consists of four caregivers, a nurse and a doctor. Most of the patients cared for are Muslims, but Christians and Hindus are also cared for. An important aspect of the home palliative care service at St. Elizabeth's is that it "promotes interfaith harmony through the caring ministry of Christian nurses who visit the homes of people of different faiths and also often seek spiritual support from Muslim, Christian and Hindu clergy." It is a ministry that requires special preparation, says Father McCulloch, which is why several nurses have taken courses and obtained training certificates in 'palliative care' or caring for cancer patients in facilities abroad such as Australia and Singapore. "The palliative care unit at St. Elizabeth Hospital relies on donations," notes the missionary, "Some of the equipment and devices for the continuous administration of pain medication are very expensive. Patients' families cannot bear the costs, there is no insurance coverage and the government does not provide funds. Only providence enables St. Elizabeth's to continue this care." True to its mission, St. Elizabeth's Hospital also offers a valuable "mobile clinic service" that visits the surrounding villages and spends entire days visiting doctors, treating, therapies and accompanying the poorest population, reaching over 50,000 people per year. For this service, the hospital will be honored on October 24 in the capital Islamabad with an international award, the "Multicultural Achievement Award 2024", presented by the Austrian Foreign Ministry.
The hospital is also very committed to training and further education: the hospital has set up a "midwifery school" for girls and a special support center for young people from disadvantaged families. In addition, the continuous training and further education of the medical and nursing staff is continued. The hospital was founded in 1958 thanks to the contribution of the St. Columban Missionaries in Pakistan and is now run by the Catholic Diocese of Hyderabad. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 7/10/2024)

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