Mumbai: With the sharp surge in lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and depression, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to depute dieticians at its health posts across the city to provide the right food intake for people suffering from such diseases. Dieticians’ services will be free-of-cost.
Civic health authorities have vowed to control lifestyle diseases with the theme “Beat Diabetes”, a pilot project that involves appointment of a dietician from the Indian Dietetic Association (IDA) for six months.
The appointed dietician will be present at the clinic once a week. A proposal for appointment of one will be tabled at the civic body’s standing committee meeting. As per the proposal, dieticians will be deputed at 72 BMC-run clinics for six months.
Talking to The Asian Age, BMC’s executive health officer Dr Padmaja Keskar, said, “We have carried out a survey earlier this year which revealed that diabetes and hypertension are major threats ailing Mumbaikars. After this, we decided to have a proper dietician deployed at BMC health posts.”
The BMC survey revealed that in the past two years, over 3 lakh people visited civic hospitals across the city to seek treatment for diabetes, and another 2.3 lakh people sought treatment for hypertension. The only disease that surpassed these numbers was common fever or influenza, with 14.4 lakh patients. Cases of diabetes and hypertension were more frequent in peripheral hospitals of the city.
