CS calls for universal screening of non-communicable diseases in J&K

Srinagar, July 28: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, while chairing a review meeting of the performance of National Health Mission (NHM) Saturday asked the health professionals to screen the entire population of the UT for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) like Hypertension, Diabetes and common types of cancers.
Besides the Secretary, Health, the meeting was attended by the Principals of GMCs, Director Health Jammu/Kashmir and other officers of the concerned Departments.
The Chief Secretary maintained that the NCD are major cause of deaths across the globe, and their early diagnosis could lead to better prevention and cure of such diseases. He asked for organizing camps all across J&K for conducting free screening of people.
Dr Mehta also observed that that there is still scope for improvement in institutional births despite it being ahead of national average. He also emphasised on further improving the ranking of the UT in SDG goals related to health.
The Chief Secretary asked the department to digitize all the health records of the patients so that it is accessible to them from anywhere by using their ABHA numbers. He also advised them to allow them to add their previous records to it for saving the same for future.
Dr Mehta enquired from the officers about the defunct machinery and poorly managed infrastructure in the hospitals of the UT. He made out that the Department should make a plan to repair all of such machines and upgrading the infrastructure to put it to optimal use for the benefit of general public.
He asked for instituting mechanism for screening all school going children of J&K by the Department. He directed them to visit the far-off schools and Anganwadi Centres for the purpose. He directed the concerned to extend every support to children requiring any kind of medical assistance and popularize the same so that people come forward readily to screen their children at their early age.
Dr Mehta also stressed on assessing all the health facilities of the UT right from the Sub-Centres on a set of parameters. He told them to repeat the exercise periodically and put the results in public domain so that people are able to see for themselves about the status of these health facilities besides giving them opportunity to make improvements.
He also asked for creating awareness among people about the initiatives like e-Sanjeevani, e-sahaj and Tele-MANAS so that people are able to seek assistance, guidance, counseling and support through such IT and telecommunication tools from the comforts of their homes.
While providing the insights into the working of NHM here the Secretary Health, Bhupinder Kumar informed the meeting that all adults aged above 30 years have been enrolled into NCD portal. He added that the risk assessment (CBAC) has been completed for 46 Lakh and 37 Lakh screened for Diabites, Hypertension and three common cancers namely oral, cervical and breast Cancers.
He further informed that about 67 Projects (810 Beds) under ECRP-II have been completed which includes 25 Maternal ICUs (215 ICU beds), 20 Paediatric Hybrid ICUs (209 HDU/ICU Beds) and 11 Oxygen Supported Paediatric wards (278 oxygen supported beds), 11 Prefab Units (108 Beds).. Besides, work on 8 Projects (150 Beds) is going on currently under this mission.
It was said that 298 DNB seats (Broad Specialty/Super specialty/ fellowship) have been approved for 20 Public Health facilities (10 GMCs/8 DHs/2 CHCs) out of which 196 candidates have joined as on date.
Regarding the IT tool TeleManas, it was given out that a UT level 24×7 Cell and one mentoring Institute at IMHANS, Psychiatric Diseases Hospital, GMC Srinagar has been established. It was added that more than 20000 calls have been received by the Tele-MANAS cell till now.
It was said that under PMNDP, 85199 sessions of dialysis were provided to 1183 patients through 131 machines installed in the Health care facilities. HMIS (JK E- Sahaj) facility is operational in Tertiary care, District Hospitals, Community Health Centres and ranking of healthcare facilities under e-sahaj is released every month, the meeting was informed.
Regarding other interventions it was revealed that Anemia Mukht Bharat programme has been implemented in all the districts of J&K and Test-Treat-Talk (T3) anaemia camps have been launched across the UT. In the initial phase 896 Digital Hemoglobinometers along with testing strips have been procured and distributed under NHM for this purpose.
It was said that During FY 2022-23, 13.96 lakh (97.16 %) school children enrolled in Govt schools and 6.47 lakh children (90.23 %) enrolled in Anganwadi Centers were screened by RBSK teams. During 1st Quarter of 2023-24, 38 % schools and 36.10 % Anganwadi Schools stand covered.
It was given out that since inception, 3194 children have been provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 18.79 Cr for treatment including surgical interventions at tertiary care institutions within/outside J&K. It was added that during first quarter of current FY, 191 Children not covered under ABPMJAY/SEHAT have been provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs 32.52 lakh
Pertinent to mention here that the UT of J&K achieved the target of operationalization of 2742 Health and Wellness Centres well within its timeframe and has nearly 4000 health institutions including that of Ayush to take care of the health of its population.