Secy Health reviews Universal Screening, Management, Continuum of Care of Non Communicable Diseases, Common Cancers

Jammu: Secretary Health & Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar, on Wednesday chaired a meeting to review Universal Screening, Management and Continuum of Care of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Common Cancers here at Civil Secretariat.
Dr. Mohammad ShafiKoka, State Nodal Officer, NHM, J&K, gave a detailed presentation highlighting status of NCD screening, management and continuum of care. The key highlights of the presentation were that 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 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 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 30 Plus population, which is highly vulnerable to it. He stressed upon the team based care approach by way of establishing linkages between specialists, Medical Officers and front line workers for improving quality of screening, identification of persons with NCDs and putting them under control.
District wise status with regard to number of cases of hypertension and diabetes put under treatment vis-a-vis 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 for hypertension, diabetes and other NCDs. Further, the concerned officers were directed to devise mechanisms for enrolment and follow-up of NCD patients undergoing treatment in the private Hospitals.
He asked the Directors, Health Services Jammu and Kashmir and Chief Medical Officers to regularly review status of screening treatment and availability of Drugs & Diagnostics in all Health facilities on weekly basis.
Secretary asked the HODs to ensure availability of medical staff for tele-consultation 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, Generation of ABHA IDs was also discussed in the meeting.
The meeting was attended by Ayushi Sudan, Mission Director, NHM, J&K, Principals of Governemnt 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.