Express Pharma hosts Idea Exchange with Dr Kenneth Thorpe on prevention of NCDs

(L-R) Dr Ratna Devi, CEO, DakshamA Health & Education, Dr Kenneth Thorpe, Chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) and Dr Shashank Joshi, President, Indian Diabetic Association

With non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like asthma, arthritis, cancer, diabetes and heart disease taking more than 36 million lives each year, they have emerged as one of the biggest threats to India’s health. They pose a double menace as NCDs not only affect the quality of life but also drive up healthcare costs thereby hindering healthcare access and affordability.

Express Pharma & Express Healthcare, Indian Express Group publications conducted an Idea Exchange with Dr Kenneth Thorpe, Chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) to delve more into this situation and mull on effective measures that need to be implemented to tackle the growing threat of NCDs in India. Thorpe was joined by Dr Shashank Joshi, President, Indian Diabetic Association and Dr Ratna Devi, CEO, DakshamA Health and Education.

Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor of Express Healthcare and Express Pharma, moderated the session which offered perspectives from three major stakeholders i.e. policy expert, clinician and a patient/NGO to the questions posed by her and the audience.

Thorpe stressed on the gravity of the situation as far as NCDs are concerned and said, “The magnitude of the problem of chronic diseases/NCDs in India is substantially growing. To fill the gap between what’s needed in terms of system delivery and patient treatment, I think there is a growing interest in coming up with a blueprint or a comprehensive healthcare reform framework that really focuses on three issues i.e. how to do a better job in preventing the growth of chronic diseases, how to increase the disease detection rate and building a primary care, chain-based care management system.”

Joshi, a strong advocate of prevention and early diagnosis to stop the advent of chronic diseases said, “Chronic diseases are a common threat because of fundamentally sedentary work habits, improper diets and probably some genetic transformation. Hence, NCDs should be a common goal/theme and deliverables must be achieved by healthcare workers. We are one of the largest exporters of doctors and healthcare workers across the world. Yet, healthcare (in India) is grossly understaffed. We have one of the worst doctor to patient ratios. But, the bigger challenge in prevention is actually looking at predisease (hidden disease) and that burden is very large. It needs a political will and individual will to make a change. We are not yet empowering either our policy makers or our individuals to make that change. That needs to happen. It has to be a movement. Until we are able to crystallise the movement, we will not be able make a dent on our numbers.”

Ratna was emphatic that unless people understood the gravity of the situation and became more pro-active in maintaining their own health, it would be difficult to curb NCDs. Giving the example of the HIV campaign where patients themselves formed peer groups, got themselves tested and helped remove the stigma associated with the disease, she said, “In the NCD segment this kind of movement is yet to start. Though there are a few organisations that are working in particular areas, especially the cancer groups where there is a lot of advocacy, awareness is being generated and enrollment has happened so people are coming forward to seek treatment, it is still at a very nascent stage. Lot of work needs to be done to get people mobilised to work together and become aware so that they start working towards prevention and manage their health by themselves.”

Thorpe also spoke on successful programmes implemented in the US to curb smoking and effective diabetes management programmes implemented in several countries like Finland and China, as examples of initiatives that can be emulated in India to deal with NCDs. The three speakers also gave their recommendations on the measures that need to be implemented by the government to curb NCDs in India.

Editor of Express Pharma and Express Healthcare thanked the speakers for their insights. In her closing remarks of the Idea Exchange, she said that it is to be hoped that such debates will pave the way for effective policies and strategies which would help in bringing down the numbers of NCD incidence in the country.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai