BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to strengthen diabetes and hypertension care at the grassroots, the State Government has joined hands with Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) to empower medical officers working in peripheral areas with latest knowledge and expertise to handle the diseases effectively.
The Department of Health and Family Welfare and PHFI have launched two certificate courses in Evidence Based Diabetes Management and Management of Hypertension with an aim to build capacity of 200 medical officers posted in PHCs, CHCs, SDHs and DHHs.
The courses will be conducted at 10 centres including Angul, Bolangir, Bhawanipatna, Koraput, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Cuttack, Baripada, Berhampur and Bhubaneswar. To kickstart the programme, the PHFI conducted a Training of Trainers in association with State Institute of Family Welfare (SIHFW) here.
The Director SIHFW Dr BP Prusty stressed that there is a need to develop innovative capacity-building programmes and courses to address public health challenges, especially for diabetes which is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the entire region.
“With these courses, the medical officers can apply the skills of comprehensive diabetes and hypertension care in their daily practice to be able to give the best possible treatment and prevent complications,” he said.Senior programme manager of PHFI Dr Sandipana Pati said diabetes and its complications represent a rapidly expanding public health concern that is expected to affect 552 million people by 2030 with devastating health and economic consequences.
“The certificate course in Evidence Based Diabetes Management has trained over 10,000 primary care physicians in India and the certificate course in Management of Hypertension has trained over 1500 physicians in India. We are happy to collaborate with Odisha Government for strengthening healthcare system at the grassroots and ensure proper diagnosis and treatment to reduce the burden of preventable premature morbidity and mortality from diabetes and hypertension in the State,” she said.