A new project of the Centre to provide free treatment to those affected with lifestyle-related diseases will be rolled out in the district from March this year.
The Centre is expected to sanction Rs 6 crore for the project under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in the district. The Union Minister of State for Health, Sudip Bandopadhyay will be in Alappuzha on February 7 to oversee the arrangements of the project.
The project is to offer free treatment to those with lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes, hypertension and related diseases, NRHM district coordinator, L. Manoj said. The detection and treatment of the diseases will be offered free of cost as per the project. Health authorities were pointing out that those with lifestyle- related diseases were on the rise even when those affected with communicable diseases were on a decline in the district in the past decade. This has prompted authorities to focus on the treatment of those with lifestyle-related diseases.
The project will be setting up lifestyle clinics at the sub-centre levels of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to detect those with lifestyle-diseases. Health volunteers will be covering households in the area for detecting patients with such diseases. Those who need treatment will be treated at the sub-centre level and those who need further treatment will be referred to Community Health Centres (CHCs).
Awareness programmes will also be conducted along with these activities. The General Hospital here will function as the referral centre for the project.
