Minister calls on Docs to coordinate with panchayats to ensure complete awareness on CATCH

COORDINATION MEETING HELD FOR CM’S COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL AND TOTAL CHECK-UP PROGRAMME
GANGTOK, 20 Mar: A State-level coordination meeting on “Mission Healthy Sikkim” and “Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Annual and Total Check-up” [CATCH] for Healthy Sikkim, organized by the Health Department, was held at the conference hall of the Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial [STNM] Hospital on 19 March. The programme was chaired by the Health Minister DN Takarpa and attended by Gangtok Mayor KN Topgay, Deputy Mayor Shakti Singh, Zilla Adakshayas of the four districts, Chief Medical Officers, doctors and officials from the STNM Hospital and other concerned officials involved in the CATCH programme.

The Minister, in his address, highlighted that education played an important role in a person’s life because if a person was educated and aware, then s/he will know how to deal with health problems and keep safe from them.
“It is mostly the poor who have health complications, thus, keeping this in mind, the Chief Minister launched the Comprehensive Annual and Total Check-up for Healthy Sikkim [CATCH] programme,” he explained. Since there was no culture of regular health check-ups in Sikkim, there are more medical complications here even though 40 per cent of health-related problems can be controlled without medicines if diagnosed in time, which is something the CATCH programme intends to do and could deliver if it was implemented well, he stressed.
“But there is lack of awareness amongst the people [about the need for regular health check-ups], especially in the villages and since the Panchayats are the closest to the people, the CMOs and doctors should utilize their services for the promotion of this programme when visiting the villages,” the Minister advised.
He also spoke on various other issues, informing the gathering that the STNM Hospital had enough equipment but faced a shortage of manpower. As of now, there were 208 posts lying vacant, he shared.
He also spoke about the grant of money to people for referrals to hospitals outside the state, where he stated that for the state government employees the amount was Rs. 50,000, and if the person was a BPL card holder than the amount was Rs. 2 Lakhs. And the choice of hospital was also left to the patients for their satisfaction, he added.
He also informed that the multi-speciality hospital coming up at Sichey would now be converted into a 1000-bedded facility instead of the 500 planned earlier and that this decision was taken by the state government after looking at the congestion in the STNM Hospital.
“The hospital should be ready by end of the year 2013, if everything goes as planned,” he said.
Earlier, a power-point presentation on the CATCH programme was also presented.
Till the end of February 2011, 135 Wards had been covered all over the state reaching 21,100 people. The main diseases that pose a health problem for the people of Sikkim were identified as heart diseases, alcohol and tobacco related complications, Tuberculosis, Cancer and suicide.
“There are 268 MDR Tuberculosis cases and 209 AIDS cases in the state,” the Minister informed the gathering.
It may be informed here that the CATCH programme had been launched by the Chief Minister Pawan Chamling on 26 August, 2010 at Chintan Bhawan. The aim of the CATCH programme is to make Sikkim the healthiest state in India and to achieve this by the year 2015.
[AMEET OBEROI]