‘75 million people with hypertension, diabetes will be put on standard care’
‘It will be the largest expansion of non communicable diseases in primary healthcare programme in the world with a community based approach starting at the primary healthcare level’
The health ministry on Wednesday launched an ambitious initiative of screening and putting 75 million people with hypertension and diabetes on ‘standard care’ by 2025 to mark the World Hypertension Day.
It was announced at the G-20 co-branded event “Accelerating the Prevention and Management of Hypertension and Diabetes” organised by the ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Highlighting the innovative scheme, Dr V K Paul, NITI Aayog Member (Health) stated that it will be the largest expansion of NCDs (non communicable diseases) in primary healthcare programme in the world with a community based approach starting at the primary healthcare level.
This indicates clear resolve of the government to address NCDs by allocating resources, capacity enhancement, mobilisation and multi-sectoral collaboration, he said.
In addition to the 75/25 initiative, the ‘Shashakt Portal’ was launched for training 40,000 primary healthcare medical officers on standard treatment work flow for NCDs initiated to realise healthcare services closer to the community.
The revised operational guidelines of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD) were also released with the aim of much wider coverage.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is determined to become a developed nation in the next 25 years in the Amrit Kaal. Towards this goal, India is making efforts to achieve results in social indicators like life expectancy, maternal mortality rate, and NCDs at par with developed nations,” he stressed.
The outcome budget document of Union Budget 2023-2024 has for the first time introduced hypertension and diabetes treatment as output indicators, reflecting the government’s commitment to scale-up hypertension and diabetes coverage services.
Paul also mentioned that the battle against NCDs (non communicable diseases) have to be fought through the primary healthcare level and pointed out that India has created a platform to fight the menace through the creation of more than 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres and operationalisation of telemedicine and digital health services.
