There are plans to cover around 50 crore people under the screening programme
JP Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated national training for universal screening and control of five common Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes and three common cancers: cervix, breast and oral cavity, in New Delhi. Also present was Anupriya Patel, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare.
Speaking at the occasion, Nadda stated that under the universal screening of common NCDs programme, everyone above the age of 30 years will be screened in the 100 districts of the country in the first phase. Gradually, it will cover the entire country and around 50 crore people will be covered so that timely intervention can reduce the disease burden in the country.
Nadda added, “The Health Ministry is working through a two-pronged strategy. This included healthy children through the total immunisation programme whereby in the past three years, the basket of vaccines has been increased from providing cover to 11 vaccine preventable diseases, from the earlier six. This is complemented by the goals set under the National Health Policy 2017 which has sharpened the focus towards promotive and preventive health care and wellness; these mandate the government to shift attention to non-communicable diseases.”
Nadda further said, “We have adopted 10 national targets in our action plan to prevent and control NCDs. 20 State Cancer Institutes (SCI) and 50 Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCCs) are being set up to provide comprehensive cancer care. National Cancer Institute, Jhajjar (with bed capacity of 710) and second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata are also being established.”
Speaking at the function, Patel said that the challenge and threat from NCDs has increased manifold and around 90 lakh people die every year due to these diseases. Patel further stated that seven crore people are suffering from diabetes and around seven to eight crore from cardio vascular diseases. She further informed that 13 lakh patients of cancer are added every year. “All these figures explain the magnitude of the issue in hand. All these are lifestyle generated and can easily be prevented, she said. She emphasised the need to generate awareness about these issues and collaborating with various stakeholders like community, NGO, etc.
Nadda released a set of four training modules for primary healthcare team constituting the frontline workers, namely, the ASHAs and ANMs and the facility-based service providers, namely – the staff nurses and the medical officers.
Also present at the event were Dr Jagdish Prasad, DGHS, Sanjeeva Kumar, Additional Secretary (Health); Manoj Jhalani, Joint Secretary; Navdeep Rinwa, Joint Secretary and other senior officers of the health ministry and representatives of development partners.