Universal screening, management, continuum care of NCDs, common cancers reviewed

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU:Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Bhupinder Kumar, on Wednesday chaired a meeting to review the status of Universal Screening, Management and Continuum of Care of Non Communicable Diseases and Common Cancers of 30-plus population here at Civil Secretariat.
Mission Director, National Health Mission, J&K, gave a presentation highlighting the status of Population Based Screening for Non Communicable Diseases and Common Cancers at HWCs and Opportunistic Screening for NCDs under NPCDCS Program.
It was informed that 42.86 lakh individuals aged 30 years or more have been enrolled in Jammu and Kashmir on the designated portal. Out of these, more than 37.54 lakh individuals have been assessed for risk factors of Non Communicable Diseases. A total of 23.5 lakh individuals have been screened and approximately 3.41 lakh have been examined in last three months only. The district wise progress in respect of screening, management and continuum care for NCD was also assessed.
Secretary appreciated progress on screening for NCDs which has substantially increased as compared to last year. However, there is need for focusing on increased diagnosis and treatment of screened population who are found affected with any of these NCDs, he added.
He emphasized that management, control and treatment of Non Communicable Diseases is a high priority area for UT and Union Government as well. It is therefore important that mass screening, early treatment and continuous follow-up is made a integrated part of public health delivery system, he added.
Secretary directed the Head of departments to assess facility wise testing and treatment capacity for Non Communicable Diseases besides ensuring proper screening examination and treatments as per the set out standards and guidelines of the respective schemes. He also asked the Chief Medical Officers and Block Medical Officers to develop data capturing mechanism for private establishments and also to ensure daily reporting of work done vis a vis targets to the concerned quarters.
Secretary also directed the MD NHM and Director Health Services Jammu and Kashmir to review the programme on regular basis for ensuring quality data on prevalence of Non Communicable Diseases. He further emphasized that the NCD screening should also be used as a opportunity to generate ABHA IDs and the field staff should be adequately trained for the purpose.
The meeting was attended by Principals of Government Medical Colleges, Director Health Services Kashmir, Joint Director Planning H&ME, Chief Medical Officers, Block Medical Officer besides other officers of H&ME department.