After having done 4 camps in different districts of Jammu and Kashmir our next destination is District Jammu. Our group will go to Jagti township and have an activity for 2 days, starting 29th January. The mission is named “No more Heart Attacks”. The camp will be done in the school complex of the Govt Middle School, Jagti Township. At least 100 inhabitants of the township with high BP, Diabetes with or without heart disease will be attending the camp. All of them will be examined by doctors of the team under my supervision with calibrated BP instruments, blood sugar, serum lipids and this time we will do for the first time in the UT a point of care blood test called “nt Pro BNP”. This unique marker gets elevated in patients with defective heart function like heart failure. It also is a good guide to treat them and seeing the response of the treatment. In addition, it differentiates shortness of breath originating from lungs versus that from heart. Both have different lines of management. New drugs for treating heart failure will be introduced for such patients. These agents reduce symptoms and hospitalizations. In addition, prolong survivor along with better quality of life.
Jagti Township is in Nagrota town located in the Jammu district of J & K. It is located on National highway 44 between Jammu city and Udhampur and is situated on the bank of River Tawi. Nagrota along with Kashmiri Pandit Migrant town of Jagti straddles the national highway. Nagrota is the first stop for pilgrims travelling to the Mata Vaishno Devijee shrine. The Jammu and Kashmir government has allotted 4,224 two-room flats to Kashmiri Migrants in Jagti Township. These flats have been completed and allotted to the migrant families at the Jagti Township. The township was developed to rehabilitate Kashmiri Migrants under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation and Return Package in 2012, for the Kashmiri Migrants. It also has other basic facilities like internal roads, educational and health institutions, community halls, parks, shops and a good drainage system. It has a completed hospital building in place. This however needs to have medical equipment, facilities for necessary blood biochemistry and a blood bank etc so that all the common and non-complex diseases in people living in the township can be managed in house without being sent to Jammu or Katra Hospital.
Being a township, and a closed community, it would be easier for keeping a track of the patients seen with follow up details over the coming months and years. The office of the school and the staff has agreed to facilitate the follow up. A report of the findings will be brought out at early date for dissemination to the health authorities.
A public lecture on prevention of Heart attacks and its causes will be delivered by Prof Upendra Kaul on 30th morning followed by an interactive session. Following this a Telemedicine centre would be donated to the community. Similar Telemedicine centres are being put up in Hawal, District Pulwama and Machil-Kupwara sector in due course. These centres will be specific for heart care and would be communicating with the hub. Necessary diagnostic facilities like ECG and relevant blood tests will be available. A trained nurse will man it. The centre has a video system through which the patient will communicate with a specialist at a remote centre who would guide the management. Common drugs are available for wending from the machine. Patients with necessity for hospitalization will be directed after administering the first aid management under supervision. An adequately equipped ambulance will be available for the transfer shortly.
It is very gratifying that within 5 months of the start of our mission we have been progressively improving our services for the benefit of people living away from the metro cities. The efforts of the GHHP to move to other parts of the country in Mizoram, Manipur and Maharashtra are going to be started from March this year. It has been a team work from Ajaz Rashid, our CEO, Ms Priyadarshini and her entire team from the Research Department, Batra Hospital and Medical Research Centre and our industry partners from various pharma and device companies.
Prof Upendra Kaul, a renowned cardiologist, is founder director, GHHP. He is the recipient of Padma Shri and Dr B C Roy Award.