Brain stroke patients to get free treatment in Punjab: Chetan Singh Jauramajra

Chandigarh, December 1, 2022: Keeping in mind the aim of the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Maan to provide better health care facilities to the residents of Punjab, Health and Family Welfare Minister, Chetan Singh Jauramajra while participating as Chief Guest in a one-day Capacity Building–Cum–Training Workshop organized at the Director's Office of the Health Department in Chandigarh, announced that Brain stroke patients will be provided timely and free treatment in dedicated stroke ready units.

On this occasion, the Health Minister said that Stroke Ready Units are being established in all 23 District Hospitals and 03 Medical Colleges of the State namely Faridkot, Amritsar Sahib and Patiala. In these units, patients with Brain Stroke will be managed. "In Punjab, the number of patients with hypertension, which is also known as high blood pressure in common parlance, is very high and 50 percent of these patients do not even know that they have hypertension. He said that Brain Stroke is a very serious and fatal complication caused by hypertension, due to which one patient dies every 30 minutes. Apart from this, the patient's face or body can also become paralyzed due to Brain Stroke.

Reiterating the promise of the Punjab government to provide quality health services to the common people, Jauramajra stated that till now the treatment of this disease was beyond the reach of the poor people and now in these stroke ready Units, a life saving injection worth Rs.30000/-  approximately will be administered absolutely free and the CT scan of the patient will also be conducted free of cost. With this, not only the life of such a patient can be saved but such a patient can also be saved from being afflicted with other stroke related complications like paralysis.

Addressing during the workshop, the Health Minister instructed the Nodal Officials who came from all the District Hospitals and Medical Colleges of the State, that after this training, they will be the incharge of the Stroke Ready Units in their respective hospitals and there must not be any kind of deficiency in the treatment of the patients of Brain Stroke. He emphasised that the time between the stroke and the treatment of the patient is very precious, therefore these Stroke Ready Units, as per their name, should always be ready to treat the patient at all times so that such a patient does not suffer any kind of loss due to lack of management at these units.

To support the treatment readiness at these units the Minister also distributed Angels Stroke bags to all the District Hospitals of Punjab.

The Minister appreciated the cooperation of CMC Ludhiana, Department of Neurology PGI Chandigarh and Angels Initiative for their role in providing the required training to the officials/employees of Health Department.

Secretary Health & Family Welfare Ajoy Sharma, Director Health and Family Welfare Dr. Ranjit Singh Ghotra, Assistant Director Dr. Sandeep Singh Gill, Dr. Jeyraj Pandian, Principal & Dean Professor Neurology,  CMC Ludhiana Dr. Dheeraj Khurana, Professor, Neurology PGIMER, Chandigarh, Mr. William Masih, National Head of Angels Initiative were also present in the workshop.