MP Arora praises initiative towards Hypertension control by Dr Bishav Mohan under IHCI Project

Ludhiana, September 25, 2024: A meeting of various stakeholders was held at Dumra Auditorium, Hero DMC-Heart Institute, Ludhiana on Wednesday, to review results and strategies of India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) for controlling hypertension among industrial workers and the role of ESIC.

Those who attended the meeting included Dr GS Wander Principal DMCH, Dr Bishav Mohan, Dr Bhairavi Deshmukh (Medical Superintendent ESIC Hospital, Ludhiana), Deputy Director ESIC Pranesh Sinha, Dr Navneet and Dr Manish Thakur from WHO Punjab, Dr Meenakshi Sharma (Scientist  G from ICMR HQ), Pankaj Sharma (PPCB Member), Dr Ravinder Singh and Dr Rachhpal Singh from ESIC Ludhiana, Dr Sandeep Gill (State Program Officer NP-NCD Punjab), Dr Navneet Kishore (State consultant CVHO, Punjab) and leading industrialists Yuvraj Arora(Octave), Amit Thapar (Ganga Acrowools), Neeraj Jain (Vardhaman Group) and Lokesh Jain (TK Steels).

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Bishav Mohan from DMC said the IHCI project by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is ongoing in the Ludhiana district for the last two years. In the second phase industry was taken for implementation of this project to control hypertension. The model was based upon seven steps using a parallel ESIC model that included awareness, screening, sensitizing, and providing medicine in the industry using local resources. The results are very encouraging and shown control of hypertension from 8% to 45%. He also highlighted important findings from IHCI about industrial workers.

Adding, Dr Bishav Mohan said the today’s meeting has been organized after MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora, the expert group from ICMR and stakeholders felt that the results should be discussed with ESIC team so that this project could be taken forward in coordination to control hypertension.

Dr Bhishav Mohan also mentioned that Hypertension being a silent killer should be taken up severely and regular Blood Pressure should be checked after the age of 18 years.

In his address, Arora spoke about the importance of the IHCI project and said the project’s importance has increased further after review of the results of the last two years. He said it has come to the fact that majority of people, irrespective of the age and gender, are suffering from the Hypertension problem, adding that in-fact, experts say that Hypertension is a “silent killer,” which is a profoundly serious finding. He, therefore, stressed on the need to take up this issue on a serious note. He also stressed upon the fact that ESIC hospital would play a crucial role in ensuring affordable healthcare to the workers and people from marginalized section of society.

Arora said the last two year’s results have shown a high percentage of the total screened people, especially industrial workers, are suffering from Hypertension. The findings reveal that migrants coming from other states start facing hypertension problem within 3 years of their stay in Punjab, he said, adding that then one could easily imagine the condition of Punjabis who are permanent residents of the state.

In his address, Arora asked all the stakeholders to coordinate with each other in a proper manner for complete success of the project. He assured to collaborate with various stakeholders including State and Central Govt. to implement measures that would improve quality of life and make healthcare more accessible and affordable for everyone. It may be mentioned that Arora is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare constituted by the Parliament and Vice President of DMC&H Managing Society, Ludhiana.

Arora asked the stakeholders to open maximum number of OPDS in the industrial units for collecting maximum data of the industrial workers for success of the project. He said there is a dire need to create a mass awareness against Hypertension. He said early and regular screenings could be the right solution to this health issue spreading in a widespread manner. He opined that everyone above 18 should go for regular screening. He said screening should be done not in industrial sector but also in other sectors such as education as Ludhiana is the biggest education hub of Punjab with thousands of students from various institutes such as DMC, CMC, PAU, GADVASU, GNDEC, CTU etc.