Hypertension Awareness Month in May to promote health and well-being of patients – Dagblad Suriname

In connection with the Hypertension Awareness Month of May, a program will be launched to promote the health and well-being of patients, said Dr Ritesh Dhanpat, deputy director at the Ministry of Health.

“The aim of this month is to raise awareness about hypertension and its impact on the health of patients. People will notice that the nurses at the outpatient clinic will be more involved in informing and guiding patients. Research has shown that task delegation allows the doctor to concentrate better on more complex cases. On the other hand, 1-on-1 sessions with the nurse or outpatient staff are much more effective, because the patient feels more comfortable and can ask all questions, even questions that they would never tell the doctor. As a result, the message of a healthy lifestyle is better received and understood,” says Dr. Dhanpat.

This program is supported by the Ministry of Health. That is why the collaboration is important to have a positive impact on the health of patients and the community as a whole, says the Deputy Director of Public Health.

He also says that there is a partnership with Telesur who will provide support by sending text messages to the community to mobilize people to measure their blood pressure at their GP. People are advised to have their blood pressure measured in accordance with the new Hearts protocols. “This means,” says Dr. Dhanpat, “that the GP must also record the results of the measurements in the Redcap system that is used for real-time monitoring of the initiative.”

Hearts is an acronym that stands for H = Healthy lifestyle,

E = evidenced based treatment protocol, A = Access to medicine and technology, R = Risk assessment based management, T = Team based task shifting and S = Systems for monitoring

“In Suriname, given the limited financial resources, we have entered into a partnership with the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS) and the Medical Scientific Institute (MWI). The MWI and AdeKUS support us with the monitoring of this initiative. We have opted for a web-based system that collects real-time information that is immediately available for analysis. An agreement has been signed between various actors, which means that the data can only be viewed by the MWI. The MWI produces monthly reports for the ministry. The service providers can track their performance on their dashboard. The PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) has recommended 17 drivers that can also be seen in the system and dashboard,” says Dr. Dhanpat.

With many years of research abroad, calculators have been developed with which one can calculate the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Dr. Dhanpat: “For example, if the risk is calculated and it is 15%, then it means that 15 people out of 100 with the same risks as the person in question will experience a heart attack or stroke within 10 years. And so the calculated risks can become increasingly higher. With this initiative, these risks are also calculated regularly, and this can be learned from the doctors or assistants. Based on the results, specific advice is given and sometimes also treatment with cholesterol lowering and more intensive guidance on blood pressure and other risk factors including smoking, obesity, unhealthy diet.”

C.S