Nagaland Medical College to be functional from next academic session

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 9 (EMN): Principal Secretary to the government of Nagaland, Amardeep Singh Bhatia, on Thursday stated that the Nagaland Medical College in Kohima will be functional from the next academic session.

He maintained the government has been putting in a lot of effort and the roadmap has been laid down, and they were hopeful to move an application to the National Medical Commission (NMC) by July.

He asserted that the NMC would give the necessary permissions.

The principal secretary was speaking during a review programme of the Social Health Responsibility campaign, an initiative of Chief Medical Office, Kohima at the Conference Hall of Hotel De Oriental in Kohima.

The campaign was held in collaboration with district administration and Association of Municipal Wards Panchayat (AKMWP) and funded by National Urban Health Mission.

Bhatia said 60 posts of senior faculty have been created and the process for recruiting has been initiated, while others will soon be created. He exuded hope that there should not be a lack of efforts from the government-level to start the admission from the next academic session.

Meanwhile, he also expressed optimism that the insurance scheme, announced by the chief minister in his budget speech earlier this year, is aiming to cover the entire population of the state upto INR 5 lakh and works were on ‘war footing’.

The official also stated that the objective is to provide the citizens of the state with access to health facilities.

Commending the initiatives being undertaken under the leadership of the CMO Kohima, he stated that there are a lot of changes taking place in lifestyle among the community — migration from rural to urban areas and access to mechanised living with less exercises, in addition to changes in food habits and consumptions that are affecting health.

He observed that COVID-19 had made mankind aware of one’s health conditions and stressed on the need for prevention from diseases, mainly non-communicable diseases (NCDs), rather than treatment.

Furthermore, he emphasised on the need for early treatment in order to monitor health on a regular basis. He said getting the right treatment from the right facility is essential, while he asserted that the government is taking initiatives to deliver it to the people.

Lack of awareness, poor health seeking behaviour observed among citizens

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Kohima, Dr. Vezokholu Theyo, said lack of awareness on personal health, poor health seeking behaviour or hesitancy for health check-up, discontinuation of treatment and irregular medication were general observations among residents in the state capital.

The health official pointed out that lack of knowledge about facilities provided by the government, non-disclosure of health status by the respondents during survey, late initiation of household survey in few areas and inadequate training for surveyor and colony stakeholders were also observed among the residents of Kohima.

She stated that the disease prevalence in the community data from comorbid disease mapping/survey was done in 9243 households, and surveyed across 42 colonies in Kohima with a target population 15100(30 years and above).

According to the findings, 823 persons with known case of hypertension were identified (5.45%); 710 persons with known case of diabetes identified (4.70%); 55 persons with known case of cancer identified (0.36%); 107 persons with known case of kidney diseases identified (0.71%) and 40 persons with known case of TB identified (0.3%).

The CMO maintained that the strategies adopted were preventive and promotive intervention with focus on awareness generation; increase access to comprehensive primary health care; promote early diagnosis , management, treatment and follow-up.

It also called for coordination and collaboration with an integrated approach of working closely with the community besides identifying disease prevalence in the community (community based data) for comorbid disease mapping and target population — 30+years, pregnant women, below 30 years with family history.

Further, she added that the mini non-communicable disease (NCD) screening camps were held across urban areas focusing on hypertension and diabetes and to provide zero out-of-pocket health care service.

PWD, Officers’ Hill record highest new cases of hypertension, diabetes

Meanwhile, Dr. Theyo also presented a summary of the survey, which revealed that the highest new hypertension (HTN) cases were detected from PWD colony with 31; highest new diabetes mellitus (DM) cases were detected from Officers Hill colony with 12; and highest new HTN+DM cases were detected from New Market with seven cases.

Meanwhile,  the highest number of cases detected (HTN,DM,HTN+DM) were from PWD with 37 cases, New Market with 33 cases, followed by Officers Hill with 25 cases and New Reserve with 22 cases.

The CMO informed that the highest OPD turnout was from New Market with 156 persons, followed by D Block and Officers Hill colony with 134 each, while no new case was detected from Forest and Supply colony.

The official revealed that 54 sessions across 34 colonies were conducted with 17 medical officers, and 258 healthcare workers were activated wherein mapping of comorbid disease prevalence was conducted at 9243 houses and 2429 people availed free consultation, medicines and diagnostic services. As per the findings, 269 new hypertension cases were detected, which is 11.07% of target population;

69 new diabetes cases were detected, which is 2.84 % of the target population; 24 new  HTN + DM cases were detected, which is 0.98 % of the target population.

Meanwhile, there were 265 follow-up clients of hypertension, which is 10.90% of the target population, 120 follow-up clients of diabetes , which is 4.94% of the target population, and 79 follow-up clients HTN+DM, which is 3.25% of the target population.

Dr. Theyo highlighted the way forward (suggestive) in the form of follow –up services undertaken by SC & UPHCs through outreach and UHND; monthly target of 10-15 follow-up home visits set for the ANMS. She suggested utilising existing comorbid disease survey record during the visit as beneficiary demographics are already captured; CBAC NCD app entry to be made mandatory and incentivisation may be considered for the health workers; Additional NCD tablet to be made available for each ANM to ease data entry (presently only 1 Tab/HU is available) and free investigation and medicine refill for follow up clients to be targeted during outreach among others.

Principal Director of the department of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. K Vikato Kinimi, stressed on the need for regular check-ups, keeping a strict diet and healthy lifestyles.

Further he also mooted for massive health screening in the entire state, like what was done in Kohima, to bring about change in the state.

Mission Director (MD) of National Health Mission (NHM), Dr. Thorusie Katiry informed that the diagnostics of NCDs in Kohima were a ‘really worrying figure’. He said hypertension and diabetes in other words were called silent killer diseases, and stressed on the need to keep a check on it.

President of Association of Kohima Municipal Wards Panchayat (AKMWP) Thejao Sekhose in his speech appreciated the leadership of Dr. Vezokholu Theyo and also asserted support and cooperation. A speech was also delivered by Dozhohu Tunyi, Chairman of Ward 11, PWD.

Earlier, welcome address was delivered by Dr. Puse Liegise, State Programme Officer (SPO), NUHM Nagaland while the programme was led by Sentimongla Tzudir, DPO, DAPCU Kohima.