The Hindu 03.06.2013
Corporation limits brought under NCD campaign
The Coimbatore Corporation limits have been brought
under a campaign to screen people above 30 years of age for the four
non-communicable diseases (NCDs) of hypertension with cardiovascular
diseases, diabetes and its complications, breast cancer and cervical
cancer.
In the initial stages, this campaign was
confined largely to the rural areas. However, with Coimbatore being a
highly urbanised district, a request was made to include the Corporation
limits, Deputy Director of Public Health R. Damodharan told
The Hindu
.
The total population of 32 lakh in the district was
split almost equally among rural and urban areas, which necessitated
such a move. Screening only the rural areas would result in a huge chunk
of people being missed and a true picture of NCDs in Coimbatore could
not be arrived at without including the urban areas, he said.
Hence,
a request was made to the State Government in March and was accepted
immediately. The screening process began in Corporation limits in April.
Further,
he said that a large number of industrial and business ventures were
located within the city limits and they employed a huge workforce, which
would also have been missed.
The scheme was being
implemented in rural areas through the 47 primary health centres and the
District Headquarters Government Hospital and the eight taluk and
non-taluk Government Hospitals.
Within the Corporation limits, he said that the 20 maternity centres of the civic body were being utilised.
Medical personnel
Staff
nurses were being appointed through an outsourcing process specifically
for the NCD screening campaign. Dr. Damodharan said that so far seven
nurses have been appointed and the rest would be posted shortly.
A
total of 746 medical personnel in primary health centres including 100
medical officers, 274 village health nurses, 32 lab technicians and 114
staff nurses have been trained to screen for NCDs.