Chandigarh, March 30— Under pressure to meet its March 31 deadline for screening patients under the National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), the Punjab health department has directed its staff to work through government holidays, including Sunday and Monday.
Out of the targeted 92.34 lakh people, only 34 lakh have been screened so far, with just 25 lakh entries uploaded to the NCD portal. Officials said data from around 35 lakh patients screened at Aam Aadmi Clinics remains unlinked to the portal, creating a significant backlog.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare has flagged Punjab as a “poor-performing” state, prompting urgent measures. According to health data, around 19% of the screened population in Punjab suffers from hypertension—higher than the national average of 16%—reflecting the growing burden of non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes.
To address the shortfall, community health officers (CHOs), ASHA workers, and medical officers (MOs) have been tasked with conducting screenings over the holidays, while other staff will focus on uploading the pending data. Civil surgeons and nodal officers are visiting health centres to maximise output before the deadline.
Confirming the development, Ghanshyam Thori, mission director of the National Health Mission, Punjab, said, “CHOs will screen patients in the next two days while other staff will upload the offline data on the portal.”
Thori added that the state requested the Union government to link the Aam Aadmi Clinic data to the NCD portal but was informed that it would take time.
