One in every 10 persons in the state is suffering from diabetes. But a whopping 12.67 lakh gluco strips, used to check blood sugar, have been allowed to go waste at Primary Heath Centres (PHC) and Community Health Centres (CHC) in five districts of the state, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The strips were to be distributed under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) in Tumkur, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Shimoga and Kolar districts.
A government doctor on condition of anonymity told Express: “Only the government is serious about implementing NPCDCS. Doctors and nurses at the grassroot level in various health centres are not carrying out the screening properly or utilising the material given to them. This is why so many materials are being wasted.”
As many as 5.8 crore gluco strips and 29,000 glucometers were provided by the Centre to 21 states in the last three years, for screening people aged over 30 for diabetes. As of May 2013, 2.15 crore people have been examined for diabetes across the country, while the state’s Health Department has screened over 16.4 lakh people. But Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad stated in his written reply to the Rajya Sabha that as on August 8, 2.14 crore strips remained unused across the country, and the expiry date varied from August to September 2013. With 12.67 lakh unused strips, Karnataka is in the sixth position for highest wastage after Rajasthan (38. 5 lakh), Maharashtra (28.3 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (28 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (18.5 lakh) and Madhya Pradesh (18.4 lakh).
The strips can’t be used now. “Using expired gluco strips will give erroneous results,” said Dr K R Narasimha Setty, director, Karnataka Institute of Diabetology. He said each strip costs anything between `20 and `30. “The expiry date of the strips can be six months to one year, depending on the brand.”
“As part of the programme, each PHC was given one glucometer along with the gluco strips,” said Dr B N Dhanya Kumar, director, Department of Health and Family Welfare. Despite the waste, the department plans to extend the programme to four more districts. “The glucometers can be used even by nurses and staff at health centres,” he added.
Will have to cross-check, says official
Madan Gopal, Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said that the NPCDCS programme was going on well, and had been combined with the Non-Communicable Diseases Control Programme and brought under the National Rural Health Mission. “We can’t believe that 12.67 lakh strips are lying unused. We will have to cross-check with our data,” he said.