Public centres to provide standardised care to 75 million diabetes patients by 2025

The Union Health Ministry has announced a '75/25' initiative to ensure 75 million people with hypertension and diabetes are put on standard care by 2025 through India's public health centres (PHCs). The government will also train 40,000 PHC medical officers on standard treatment workflow for non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

As on March 2023, India had 26,42,038 persons undergoing treatment for diabetes. In the case of hypertension, this number was 62.30,155. The 75/25 programme is expected to be the largest expansion of NCDs in primary healthcare programme in the world with a community-based approach starting at the primary healthcare level.

"India is determined to become a developed nation in the next 25 years in the Amrit Kaal. Towards this goal, India is making efforts to achieve results in social indicators like life expectancy, maternal mortality rate, NCDs at par with developed nations," Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, said. The Outcome Budget document of Union Budget 2023-2024 had also for the first time introduced hypertension and diabetes treatment as output indicators reflecting reflects the government's commitment to scale-up hypertension and diabetes coverage services.

According to Dr Paul, the battle against NCDs have to be fought through the primary healthcare level and India has to fight the menace through the 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres (HWCs) and operationalisation of telemedicine and digital health services.

He urged the State teams to adhere to all stand operating procedures (SOPs), especially the screening SOPs correctly at the grassroots since screening is the bedrock of successful management of any disease. However, he noted that only screening is not enough and detection should lead to outcomes. Hence he urged all stakeholders to ensure that at least 80% of the diagnosed people are under treatment. The need for private sector engagement in this effort and the contribution of the academic and research sector in creating models and different building blocks for achieving the ambitious targets were also emphasised.

In addition to the 75/25 initiative, the ministry launched a Shashakt Portal for training of 40,000 Primary Health Care Medical Officers on Standard Treatment Workflow for NCDs initiated to realise health care services closer to the community. The revised operational guidelines of National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD) were also released with the aim of much wider coverage. The programme is now providing services for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Asthma, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Diseases (NAFLD), ST Elevation of Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) apart from Hypertension, Diabetes and Oral, Breast and Cervical cancers.