Health Minister Dechen Wangmo launched the Health Flagship Programme and its blueprint and guidelines in Monggar today. The programme, which is an initiative of the government, aims to take all basic diagnostic services to the people’s doorsteps.
The Health Flagship Programme, in particular, will focus on the prevention, early screening and treatment of breast, cervical and stomach cancers. Towards this end, the government procured and set up additional endoscopy machines to detect stomach cancer in hospitals across the country.
“Our main objective is to reduce the incidences of these three cancers. We have strategies for how to reach this programme in the community. We have plans for rigorous camps all over the country. So we have a phase-wise programme. We have guidelines and everything is in place on how to go about the project,” said Pempa, the Project Coordinator of the Health Flagship Programme under the Ministry of Health.
The ministry also plans to put in place Human Papilloma Virus or HPV testing kit to detect cervical cancer and mammogram facility, which is using a machine designed to look at breast tissues, in the regional and district hospitals. Along with the Flagship Programme, the Health Blueprint was also released.
“It’s a roadmap or design on how a project or programme has to go on in a particular time frame. So the blueprint says what has to be done and where and when should we start. Along with the blueprint we have the technical thing, which is the screening guidelines. This will say that every health centres or very Dzongkhag whichever does the screening should do the same thing following the guidelines,” he added.
The residents of Monggar welcome the new initiative of the government.
“There has been no such programme for cancers in eastern Dzongkhag. However, with the launch of a health flagship programme by the Health Minister, we are hopeful that such a programme will benefit us. We are so excited about launching the health flagship programme,” said Tshewang Lhagyel, from Monggar.
“There used to be more cancer cases related to women in the earlier days. But men are also equally vulnerable to some cancer cases. So when the government gives more focus on cancers, such a programme would also benefit us. So, we must take our own responsibility in the early detection of any diseases,” added Tawchung, also from Monggar.
The government approved Nu 1.3bn for the Health Flagship Programme in November 2019.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister, who is on tour to the eastern districts also visited the Eastern COVID-19 Hospital in Monggar and met with the District COVID-19 taskforce.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
