On the International Women’s Day, the Department of Health & Family Welfare Punjab would conduct free special health checkups for all ANMs/ASHA workers (Accredited Social Health Activist) in the state.
Nearly 4,150 ANMs and 20,000 ASHA workers would be benefited by this initiative. These check-ups would be covered under the Free Annual Preventive Health Checkup (FAPHC) programme in all the Community Health Centres (CHC’s) on March 8 as a special gesture to celebrate the spirit of womanhood. Vini Mahajan, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Government of Punjab said that another objective of this initiative is to educate women regarding reducing the risk of lifestyle diseases by laying emphasis on the importance of preventive health checkups. She also said that the department hopes that these health workers (ANM’s & ASHA’s) would in turn encourage more and more people, especially women to avail the FAPHC. Mahajan informed that FAPHC is already functional in all Community Health Centers throughout Punjab since December 2016, as part of which service of free annual preventive health check up for all 30 plus citizens of Punjab is extended to all those who are willing to get themselves screened for diseases like Anaemia, Hypertension, Diabetes, Cancer, Kidney and liver diseases etc.
About 50000 persons have already been examined under this scheme till February 2017. She said that these female workers too would be screened for all these diseases on 8th March and wherever required they shall also be referred to tertiary level institutions.
Mahajan also said that the main idea behind this initiative is to generate further awareness among women concerning health issues. As the awareness among the women regarding preventive health check up increases, more and more women without any pre-diagnosed diseases are likely to come forward for routine preventive health checkups.