JAMMU: Secretary Health & Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar, today chaired a meeting to review Universal Screening, Management and Continuum of Care of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Common Cancers here at the Civil Secretariat.
Dr. Mohammad Shafi Koka, State Nodal Officer, NHM, J&K, gave a detailed presentation highlighting the status of NCD screening, management, and continuum of care.
The key highlights of the presentation were that UT of J&K has enrolled 45.36 Lakh individuals aged 30 years or more into the NCD portal. Of these, more than 41.48 Lakh individuals have been assessed for risk factors for NCDs.
Besides, a total of 30.42 lakh individuals among these have been screened and 4.9 Lakh were examined. Till now, 1.75 Lakh have been put under treatment for NCDs, which will be followed up to ensure that they have a controlled disease status. This was followed by the district-wise status of NCD screening and continuum of care. Key challenges in universal screening, diagnosis and follow-up for hypertension, diabetes, and common cancers was also discussed.
Secretary emphasized the need for Universal Screening Management and Continuum Care of Non-Communicable Diseases and Common Cancers, especially among the 30 Plus population, which is highly vulnerable to them. He stressed upon the team-based care approach by way of establishing linkages between specialists, Medical Officers and front-line workers for improving the quality of screening, identification of persons with NCDs and putting them under control.
District-wise status with regard to the number of cases of hypertension and diabetes put under treatment vis-a-vis the expected number of cases as per National Health Surveys was thread barely discussed and directions were issued for timely completion of targets by 31st March 2023.
Secretary instructed the officers for increased screening management and treatment enabling continuous care for those identified with hypertension, diabetes and other NCDs. Further, the concerned officers were directed to devise mechanisms for the enrolment and follow-up of NCD patients undergoing treatment in private Hospitals.
He asked the Directors, Health Services Jammu and Kashmir and Chief Medical Officers to regularly review the status of screening treatment and availability of Drugs & Diagnostics in all Health facilities on weekly basis.
Secretary asked the HODs to ensure the availability of medical staff for teleconsultation services besides making sure that staff posted at Health and Wellness Centres including MLPHs/ANMs (Regular/NHM) should not be put on night duties under any circumstances in order to achieve the screening targets. Besides, instructions were issued for ensuring monitoring through GPS-enabled bio-metric attendance. Besides, the Generation of ABHA IDs was also discussed in the meeting.
The meeting was attended by Ayushi Sudan, Mission Director, NHM, J&K, Principals of Government Medical Colleges, Director Health Services Jammu/Kashmir, Joint Director Planning H&ME among other officers of H&ME Department while representatives from WHO and all the CMOs/BMOs participated online.
