Health Department pushes annual check-ups for persons with long-standing diabetes through Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam

Directorate of Public Health promotes annual check-ups for diabetes patients through Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam (MTM) to prevent complications.

Through Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam (MTM), the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine is now pushing for annual check-ups for persons with long-standing diabetes to keep a check on complications. The directorate is looking to take the next step to facilitate persons diagnosed with diabetes through MTM to undergo three tests every year to screen for diabetes-related complications affecting the kidneys, eyes, and nerves.

The implementation of MTM, Tamil Nadu’s flagship scheme to take healthcare to the doorstep of the people, has crossed three years. According to data from the directorate, a total of 48,86,887 persons were being provided with first-time services for diabetes as of November 2. There were a total of 43,86,674 persons diagnosed with both hypertension and diabetes under the MTM scheme.

“While providing drugs at people’s doorsteps through women health volunteers (WHV) under the MTM scheme has reduced the out-of-pocket expenditure for beneficiaries, we want them to visit a health facility nearest to them for a check-up so we can assess the impact of these medications. Assessing the control remains a challenge,” said T.S. Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

With diabetes-related complications being a major challenge, the directorate, in a step to move forward, is pushing for screening of complications for persons with long-standing diabetes, he said.

“Persons diagnosed with diabetes through the MTM scheme should undergo three assessments once a year — nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy. To check the kidneys, we can perform tests at the primary health centres to check for urine albumin, while we have block-level tele vision centres, where the eyes can be checked. If a person has any symptoms including loss of sensation or pain, they should immediately get checked for diabetic neuropathy,” Dr. Selvavinayagam said.

Noting that haemodialysis remains one of the highly-covered procedures under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, he said this indicated the need for early detection of diabetes-related complications; one of which is kidney disease. “We are now asking people to undergo annual check-ups. Uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension carry a high risk of complications. In many cases, diagnosis of diabetes in itself is late as some remain undiagnosed for two to three years,” he added.