State seeks help from pvt hosps to eliminate TB
Kolkata: State Health department has written to all the private hospitals, medical practitioners and labs seeking their participation and active support to help the government to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025.
According to Health department data, around one lakh TB patients have been notified across the state and therefore under medication. Around 24 per cent patients out of the total figure are reported from private health establishments. State government has laid great emphasis on early diagnosis and prompt treatment of TB patients along with TB preventive treatment (TPT) among their contacts which is the main strategy to control TB. To reduce the spread of TB and the emergence of multi drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis it is necessary to cut the chain of transmission. In an order issued by the state Health department on September 19, it has been stated that the Bengal government is committed to achieve TB free Bengal by the year 2025, in the line of national target. "As a significant number of TB cases are diagnosed and treated in the private sector, the role of private health establishments and medical practitioners is vital in terms of TB cases notification and their treatment adherence in case of both drug sensitive and drug resistant tuberculosis," reads the order. As per the government of India notification dated March 19, 2018, TB is a notifiable disease, both from the private and public sector. Therefore, it is mandatory that all private health facilities (hospitals, diagnostic centers/Day care centers) who are registered under West Bengal Clinical Establishment Act must notify all TB patients diagnosed or treated in their institutions. This is also applicable in case of individual private practitioners as well. The notification of TB cases has to be done in a web-based real time platform named "Ni-kshay" and have their independent user ID and password. Local District TB officers will create IDS and passwords for them, says the new order. Sensitisation programmes will be carried out among the doctors and paramedical staff.
