Union Health Secretary, Shri Sudhansh Pant chaired a webinar for Medical Officers, which was organised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the occasion of the World Heart Day. The aim of the webinar was to accelerate people’s Movement for Healthy Heart in India. Experts from the Medical Fraternity and  in the field of Cardiology along with public health experts participated in the webinar.More than 6,000 Medical Officers participated in this webinar, who are actually posted at different health facilities across the country.

At the outset, Shri Sudhansh Pant, Union Health Secretary emphasized on expanding the services of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases. He also urged the medical doctors to pay little more attention to patients who are coming to the health facilities and encourage them for lifestyle modifications for the patients of heart diseases. He also stressed upon the health policy shift from curative to preventive & promotive health, where more focus is given on prevention of the occurrence of the diseases. 

Smt. L S Changsan, Additional Secretary and Mission Director of National Health Mission discussed the broad perspective of the programme and vision behind expanding the services up to the Sub –Centre level which is now known as Health and Wellness Centre (HWC) to cater Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) along with health promotion in terms of organising sessions on Yoga, Zumba and educating community about the NCDs risk factors.

Shri Vishal Chauhan, Joint Secretary highlighted the learning of “India Hypertension Control Initiative '' a highly impactful large scale hypertension intervention within India’s existing primary healthcare system under National Health Mission, which won the prestigious UN Award for its outstanding performance in 2022. The award recognizes outstanding commitment and action of India to: (i) prevent and control Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and (ii) deliver integrated people-centered primary care. Earlier, this initiative was implemented in 154 districts and now it has been expanded in 300 districts and will be implemented across the country in a gradual manner. He also stressed on having standard treatment protocol to implement the programme in a better way and get better results.

Dr. Balram Bharvaga, Head, Department of Cardiology, AIIMS, New Delhi and Ex- Secretary, Department of Health Research and Director General ICMR emphasized that screening of the patients for hypertension is the key in order to control and manage.  In India, one in four adults has high blood pressure. The control of hypertension at primary care system level will help in reducing deaths due to heart attacks, stroke and kidney failures.

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MV

HFW/World Heart Day/30September 2023

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