Under the Free Annual Preventive Health Check-up (FAPHC) programme, as many as 11,178 auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) underwent special health check-ups in all the Community Health Centres (CHCs) across Punjab.
The initiative was dedicated towards the better health of these female workers associated with the department to mark women's day, said the state Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education and Research Minister Brahm Mohindra.
He said that these female workers were screened for diseases like anaemia, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, kidney and liver diseases etc.
“The objective of this initiative is to educate women in reducing the risk of lifestyle diseases and laid emphasis upon importance of preventive health check-ups,” he said.
Mohindra said that the state Health Department envisaged that these health workers — ANM and ASHAs — would in turn motivate more and more people, especially the women to avail the preventive health check-up facility under FAPHC. Good health of woman is one of the basic constituent in building a healthy society, he said.
Under this initiative, maximum number of female workers who came forward for preventive health check-ups were in Amritsar districts, wherein 2924 underwent checkup, followed by ludhiana district with 1049, and Jalandhar district with 1024.
Out of the total 11,178 ANMs and ASHAs screened, 1663 were found to be anaemic, 516 suffering with obesity, 1396 suffering with hypertension and 642 were found diabetic. Apart from this, 10 females were found to be suffering with suspected liver ailment, two with suspected breast cancer and seven with suspected cervix cancer.
“Under FAPHC programme, basic investigations like blood pressure, haemoglobin, blood sugar, kidney and liver function tests and consultation by doctors are conducted free of cost for all 30-plus citizens of Punjab who are willing to get themselves screened for such diseases on every Saturday across all the CHCs of the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Vini Mahajan said that the motive behind this gesture was to generate further awareness among women regarding their health issues.
As the awareness among the women regarding preventive health check-up will increase, more and more women without any pre-diagnosed diseases are likely to come forward for routine preventive health check-ups, she said.
Underlining the need for maintaining healthy lifestyle and good eating habits for keeping diseases away, Mahajan attributed factors like regular exercise, eating more vegetables and avoiding junk food and refraining from tobacco and alcohol consumption as basics for maintaining good health.