India to put 75 million people with hypertension, diabetes on standard care

New Delhi: The health ministry on Wednesday launched an ambitious initiative of screening and putting 75 million people with hypertension and diabetes on ‘standard care’ by 2025 to mark the World Hypertension Day.

It was announced at the G20 co-branded event “Accelerating the Prevention and Management of Hypertension and Diabetes” organised by the ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Highlighting the innovative scheme, Dr. V K Paul, NITI Aayog Member (Health) stated that it will be the largest expansion of NCDs (non communicable diseases) in primary healthcare programme in the world with a community based approach starting at the primary healthcare level.

This indicates clear resolve of the government to address NCDs by allocating resources, capacity enhancement, mobilisation and multi-sectoral collaboration, he said.

In addition to the 75/25 initiative, the ‘Shashakt Portal’ was launched for training 40,000 primary healthcare medical officers on standard treatment work flow for NCDs initiated to realise healthcare services closer to the community.

The revised operational guidelines of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD) were also released with the aim of much wider coverage.

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is determined to become a developed nation in the next 25 years in the Amrit Kaal. Towards this goal, India is making efforts to achieve results in social indicators like life expectancy, maternal mortality rate, and NCDs at par with developed nations,” he stressed.

The outcome budget document of Union Budget 2023-2024 has for the first time introduced hypertension and diabetes treatment as output indicators, reflecting the government’s commitment to scale-up hypertension and diabetes coverage services.

Paul also mentioned that the battle against NCDs have to be fought through the primary healthcare level and pointed out that India has created a platform to fight the menace through the creation of more than 1.5 lakh HWCs and operationalisation of telemedicine and digital health services.

To accelerate the prevention and management of hypertension, Paul urged state teams to adhere to all SOPs, especially the screening SOPs correctly at the grassroots since screening is the bedrock of successful management of any disease.

However, he noted that only screening is not enough.

“Detection should lead to outcomes,” he said urging all stakeholders to ensure that at least 80 per cent of the diagnosed people are under treatment.

The need for private sector engagement in this effort and the contribution of academic and research sector in creating models and different building blocks for achieving the ambitious targets were also emphasised.

Paul also emphasised that greater effort should be put in prevention which includes lifestyle changes through eating good food, exercising and other wellness practices. He highlighted the need for a Jan Andolan to make this effort more visible through community participation; and on the need for countries to work together and share each other’s successes in the spirit of “One Earth, One Health”.

Congratulating India on this stupendous initiative, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General WHO, said, “The Indian government’s ambitious target of reaching 75 million people with hypertension under standard care in primary healthcare by 2025 is the largest cover of NCDs in the world for primary healthcare.”

In her virtual address, Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh also congratulated the government for launching ambitious healthcare initiatives.

She applauded India’s commitment to primary healthcare and highlighted the operationalisation of more than 1.5 lakh Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres as a significant achievement.

She also urged countries in the Southeast Asia region to create a new and effective regional roadmap to accelerate NCD control.