Palliative care is medical care for comfort rather than cure, and families in Bangalore usually find their way to it late, after a diagnosis of advanced cancer, end-stage organ failure or a neurological disease that will not reverse. This guide is about the practical side: what home palliative care actually consists of, who provides it in Bangalore, what it costs, and the charitable services that most families never hear about.
What home palliative care includes
Pain and symptom control comes first. A palliative physician sets the medication plan, including opioids where needed, and a nurse or trained attendant follows it at home. Nursing tasks include catheter and stoma care, wound and pressure-sore management, oxygen, feeding-tube care and managing nausea, breathlessness and agitation. Personal care, which is bathing, toileting, turning and feeding, is attendant work. Alongside all of this is the part families underestimate: someone explaining what is happening, what to expect next, and what to do at 3 am.
Good palliative care also includes a plan for the last days at home, if that is the family's choice, so that the end is not a panicked ambulance ride.
Free and charitable services in Bangalore
Bangalore has some of the best charitable palliative care in India, and it is under-used because people assume it must be paid for.
Karunashraya, the Bangalore Hospice Trust, provides home-care visits and in-patient hospice care for advanced cancer patients free of charge, funded by donations. Sparsh Hospice is another charitable provider with home-care services. Several hospital-based palliative units, including at government hospitals, run outreach at low or no cost. Eligibility is usually an advanced cancer diagnosis or a comparable terminal illness, and a referral from the treating doctor speeds things up.
If your parent has advanced cancer, call Karunashraya before you call anyone else. Their team will tell you what they can cover and what you need to arrange privately.
What paid care costs
Charitable home visits are periodic, typically weekly or on need, and do not cover round-the-clock hands-on care. That is where paid services come in, and Bangalore providers publish very little on price for palliative care specifically. What is public, as of September 2026, is this.
A residential palliative or respite facility in Bangalore is quoted at about ₹25,000 to ₹35,000 a month all-inclusive. For care at home, a palliative-experienced attendant or nurse is generally priced the same as skilled home nursing: the general Bangalore band is ₹1,000 to ₹2,500 for a twelve-hour nursing shift, and a live-in trained attendant runs roughly ₹24,000 to ₹34,000 a month. A live-in nurse is ₹35,000 to ₹55,000 a month. See the home nursing cost guide for the full table.
Equipment is the other line: a hospital bed at ₹3,000 to ₹13,000 a month by type, an air mattress about ₹5,500, an oxygen concentrator ₹3,000 to ₹5,500. Medicines, including opioids, are at pharmacy cost and need a valid prescription.
The mix that most families end up with
A charitable palliative team for the medical plan and periodic nurse visits, a paid live-in attendant for daily care and turning, rented equipment, and the family covering nights in the early weeks then handing over to a night attendant when it becomes too much. That mix typically costs ₹40,000 to ₹70,000 a month in Bangalore for a patient who needs full support, and considerably less for someone still mobile.
Questions to settle early
Where does the family want the last weeks to happen, home or hospice. Who is the one doctor whose number the attendant calls at night. Is there a written plan for breathlessness and pain that the attendant can act on without waiting. Has anyone talked to the patient about what they want, while they can still say.
What EzyHelpers does and does not do
EzyHelpers places palliative-experienced attendants and nurses at home in Bangalore, and arranges the equipment. We do not replace a palliative physician or a hospice team, and we will say so on the call. If your parent qualifies for a charitable service, we will tell you to use it and fit our staff around it.