Door-to-door health screening under Gruha Arogya likely by Jan

Bengaluru: People aged 30 years and above in Karnataka will soon be able to avail of door-to-door screening and testing for non-communicable diseases as the state government is all set to roll out the ‘Gruha Arogya’ scheme. 

While the scheme awaits approval by the Cabinet, the Health department officials, expect the first phase of screenings and drug procurement to begin by January next year in eight districts, including Ramanagara and Dakshina Kannada.

Funded by the National Health Mission (NHM), the scheme will enable teams of two to four people, including a community health officer (CHO), ASHA workers, and primary healthcare officers, to conduct door-to-door screening of and raise awareness about hypertension, diabetes, and cervical, breast and mouth cancers.

Once the scheme is approved, the Health and Family Welfare department will procure the necessary medication and testing equipment with the state’s grant worth Rs 69.15 crore and the 15th Finance Commission’s grant worth Rs 13.27 crore, respetively.

Over approximately 16 weeks, these teams from each Health and Welfare Centre (HWC) will visit 20 homes each on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, covering nearly 1,000 homes under each HWC in the time period.

For instance, if the officers detect the possibility of cancer among residents, they will be referred to the nearest community health centre or taluk hospital for confirmation and further course of treatment. Similarly, people with suspected cases of diabetes and hypertension will receive teleconsultation from doctors, and if confirmed, medication for three months.

The CHOs will update any positive cases on the NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases) portal with their ABHA IDs to create a database of people with these diseases and help them access the necessary medicines. They will also put up colour-coded Gruha Arogya stickers outside homes, which will also indicate the health status of the residents.

All the health officers will be trained in phases, beginning with the state-level trainings in December, said an official.

At the state-level, the district health and family welfare officers, district survey officers, programme co-ordinators, and other officers will be trained under the supervision of the NHM campaign director. Subsequently, all the taluk medical officers, CHOs, primary healthcare officers and other personnel will be trained.

Eight districts across four divisions to be covered in the first phase: Ramanagara and Tumakuru in the Bengaluru division Belagavi and Gadag in the Belagavi division Ballari and Yadgir in the Kalaburagi division Dakshina Kannada and Mysuru in the Mysuru division