Just 3% women addicts in Punjab enrolled for treatment, says Health Dept

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, April 24

The presence of widespread drug addiction among women emerged as a huge concern in the first presentation by the Health Department before the Chief Minister.

CM Bhagwant Mann expresses concern

• Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, too, expressed concern regarding the low enrolment of women for deaddiction
• He asked the department to open separate counters for women at all Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment clinics
• Apart from that, it was decided to open 400 new OOAT clinics covering all primary health centres of the state

The sources revealed that a senior police officer said though the number of women addicts in Punjab was much higher, just three per cent had been enrolled for treatment.

Even the CM expressed concern regarding the low enrolment of women for deaddiction. He asked the Health Department to open separate counters for women at all Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics.

Apart from that it was decided to open 400 new OOAT clinics covering all primary health centres of the state. The meeting discussed the need for getting all clinics geo-tagged so one could check availability of rehabilitation centres in the vicinity.

To check dominance of only a few players, it was decided that all private practitioners might be allowed to prescribe deaddiction drugs.

It was also decided that all MLAs should be briefed about the deaddiction programme to ensure more community participation in the drive.

According to sources, the department said till date 241 women (189 in Kapurthala and 52 in Phagwara) who used drugs, had been registered in the programme. Among them, 81 women — 66 in Kapurthala and 15 in Phagwara — have been referred to OOAT clinics for treatment. About 46 have been admitted to Navkiran Kendras.

Sharing data, the department said HIV tests on 230 women had been done. Of the total, 16 were found to be HIV reactive.

Another shocking revelation was that 50 women were found to be Hepatitis C reactive and their treatment started in their respective districts.

Expansion of health facilities was also discussed at the meeting. More facilities such as sub-divisional hospitals would be created and all existing districts hospitals would be expanded. Freshly pass-out MBBS doctors would be hired by the department during their internship to ensure availability of sufficient doctors in the state.

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