Puducherry government has launched an integrated health management programme for non-communicable diseases (NCD) in Koodapakkam in association with a pharmaceutical company.
Under this programme, 4,700 people who are above 30 years under Koodapakkam Primary Health Centre will be screened for diseases like diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia (cholesterol-related disorders) and thyroid disorders. As a first step, questionnaire will be distributed to the public to get the basic details. Each person detected with NCD problems will be given a card in which all the details will be available for treatment and the follow-up action. The healthcare providers will assess each individual’s health risks and support the public health ecosystem. It will be completed within 15 days and then the same programme will be taken up in Gorimedu PHC, said director of health and family welfare Dr K V Raman.
The programme will reach out to seven lakh people in the UT, as per the memorandum signed between Department of Health and Family Welfare and pharma company Abbot on March 26. The health department is providing the infrastructure and logical arrangements to run the project in the UT, while Abbot is providing the subsidised diagnostics.
The programme aims at reducing the UT’s NCD burden in the next five years, said Raman. The assessment of diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and thyroid disorders will project the disease pattern over a period of three years, thereby enabling a targeted approach to reduce the disease burden, he said.