PGIMER using multi-pronged approach towards strengthening hypertension services in Punjab

Chandigarh : February 11 : Punjab has reported an unadjusted prevalence of hypertension to be 35.7% (Men- 41%, women-25.0%) against the prevalence in India as 25.3% (95% CI 25.0–25.6%) as per the District Level Health Survey-4. The Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh in conjugation with Strategic Institute for Public Health Education and Research (SIPHER), Chandigarh and Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), USA have been working vigorously to strengthen programme implementation of hypertension services in the state of Punjab.
Highlighting the annual achievements of the project, Dr. Sonu Goel, Professor in Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health and Principal Investigator of the project emphasized that there has been an increased prioritization of hypertension services at the state and district level in Punjab. Besides, Punjab has operationalized Telemedicine hub and spoke model for healthcare delivery, besides capacity building of more than thousand community Health workers and Community Health Officers in a period of one year. Along with this, liasoning was done with reputed media houses to publish awareness generating media stories.
The phase 2 of the project has started with an overall goal of strengthening the existing Indian Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) in state of Punjab along with reinforcement of Ministry’s National Program for Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).
In order to promote hypertension prevention, the project will exclusively focus on streamlining the hypertension drugs procurement and logistics in Punjab, provide technical support to the State Health and Wellness Centers for hypertension detection and management, strengthen implementation of national transfat regulations to <3% and conduction of operational research for prioritizing hypertension diagnosis and treatment in Punjab. Dr Ashok Kumar, Professor, Deptt. of Hospital Administration and Co- Investigator of the project recommended the development of a comprehensive drug logistic model for the state of Punjab to streamline the shortfall of drugs at the facility level. He also laid emphasis on development of relevant media stories on hypertension and transfats which are major risk factors of various non-communicable diseases. Dr Rakesh Gupta and Dr. Poonam Khanna recommended to partner Food Safety and Standard Authority of India and rope-in edible manufacturers / retailers for the implementation of <3% advisory of trans fat regulation. Experts comprising of Dr Ashok Kumar, Professor, Hospital Administration, Department of Hospital Administration; Dr. Rakesh Gupta, President, Strategic Institute for Public Health Education and Research (SIPHER);Dr. Poonam Khanna, Assistant Professor and Dr. Kathirvel S, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER will be involved in formulating various strategies in the project to deal with the on-going problem in the state.