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HEALTH CARE ASSISTANCE TO THE PUBLIC-ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PATIENTS ON MEDICATIONS

Author: Sucharitha. Koppula

What is health care assistance?

It is defined as providing the health literacy information to the public by the health care assistants are like health care professionals i.e., nurses, pharmacy, physicians regarding how to maintain the proper hygiene, medication using advantages and disadvantages.

Introduction: The main of providing health care assistance to the public is to get the best possible health outcomes. But here some factors are influencing the public health care such as poor economic background, transportation problems, poor health literacy, inadequate knowledge about the policies and schemes provided by the government and provide health care sector and lack of ability to communicate with health care professionals. WHO (World Health Organization) will provide all updated healthcare information and guidelines to the healthcare team and public. Main goal of universal healthcare is to create the highest possibility of healthcare and assistance, by providing the health policies and improving the health literacy, providing the free medications in rural areas etc.

Benefits:

1. Health care assistance will educate the patients regarding medication usage, eligible health insurance policies, personal hygiene.
2. By the assistance, people can decrease their disease severity and hospitalization.
3. By this they can decrease hospital costs.
4. Health insurance policies place a major role public for their future and it will cover the wide range of ailments, such as heart disease, kidney diseases, brain injuries, accidents, and cancers.
5. By the health care assistance people get the knowledge on disease severity.
6. Public will have an idea that how to control the disease by using the health care apps provided the government.

What will happen if there is no proper health care assistance:

1. If there are no proper health care assistance people prone to a greater number of diseases and increases the hospitalization.
2. There are proper health literacy leads to poor knowledge on how decrease the severity of disease.
3. People should know that every disease has the treatment regimen for ailment cure.
4. People will lose the government providing health policies and schemes.
5. Due to lack of health knowledge people could not concentrate on disease and its cure.
6. They lose their hope due to the heigh cost of the drugs and treatment, will happens if they do not get proper knowledge on health care.
7. There are many scientists are doing great job to bring the proper treatment regimen to treat most dangerous and deadly diseases are like cancer and HIV etc. If people don’t have any knowledge on it, they lose their lives.
8. There are many health care apps, if we don’t have proper assistance on how to use the health apps people will likely increases their disease severity and increased spreading of the disease to the public such as Communicable diseases, like TB, AIDS, covid-19, cold etc.
9. Even though people are eligible for the health schemes, if there are no health literacy people will spend more money to highly cost treatment.

Types of health care programs, schemes and policies and its eligibility criteria: There are mainly two types of sectors are providing the health schemes, those are, one is government sector and the second one is private sector.

Government health care programs and schemes: There we have many schemes for the public health care. Such as,

Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent health:

• Umbrella scheme: It is a life insurance health care scheme to the people who met with an accident, for disabilities, railways, fishermen etc. And it was launched by PM. Narendra Modi in last year.
• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK): It was launched on 1^st June, 2011. This program is intended for the pregnant women for their delivery diagnosis and treatment with free diet during the pregnancy. Government will take care of everything of a pregnant woman. In Telangana there is a program called KCR-Kit scheme it was launched on 4^th June 2017. Government provides a kit with baby and mother daily using soaps, clothes along with some money under this scheme.

• Universal Immunization Programme: Immunization program is to provide the childhood vaccines to prevent the diphtheria, measles, polio, tetanus, TB etc. and it was launched in 1974 by WHO.
• Mission Indra Dhanush (MI)
• National Programme for Family planning: India is the first country in launching this program in globally and was launched in 1952.
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matriva Abhiyan (PMSMA): The main aim of this program is providing the special care (free of cost treatment on the 9^th of every month) to the pregnant women and it was launched in 31^st July 2016.
• Navjaat Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (NSSK): The main aim of this program is to provide the capacity of doctors and nurses for the new born special care. And it was implementing since

Communicable diseases: To treat the communicable diseases are like TB, Leprosy, AIDS etc., there we have many programs.

• National Leprosy Control Programme (NLEP): The first name of NLEP is National Leprosy Eradication Programme. It is the national program and the Min aim of this program is to eradicate the Leprosy disease, it will be conducted by the PHCs (Primary Health Care Center), UPHCs (Urban Primary Health Care Center) and their health care team (contains at least one leprosy department medical officer, supervisor, ANM team with ASHAS)
• It was launched by the Government of India in 1954-1955, and it was introduced in
• National AIDS Control Program (NACP): The National AIDS Control Programme was launched in It is a worldwide successful Programme.
• In 1999 Indian government launched the second National AIDS Control Programme (NACP II).
• In July 2007 government launched the third National Programme with the aim of halting and reversing the epidemic by the end of project period (five years period).
• With all these programs government assisted the people regarding the cure and prevention of disease.

• Pulse Polio Program: It is an immunization program for children under the age of five years to prevent the poliomyelitis in India.
• The program was launched in India in 1995
• The last case of polio was reported from Howrah district of west Bengal on 13^th January 2011, this was the last case there after no polio case has been reported. With this WHO was declared India as polio-free
• National Viral Hepatitis Control Program (NVHCP): It was launched by Union Minister of state, Health & Family Welfare in July 2018.
• The main of this program is to provide paperless and pocket-less health care for all the people said by health and family welfare officers.
• Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP): It is the TB control program in the world. The government hospitals–PHCs and UPHCs are providing the free diagnosis and treatment to the public who got TB. It was launched in
• The main of this program is to prevent or to decrease the morbidity and mortality rate due to TB increased transmission.
• National Rabies Control Program: This program plays a major role in health care system in protecting the people from dog disease and it was approved by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and it was founded in 2007
• National Programme on Health Care for Elderly.

Health programs for non-communicable diseases:

• National Tobacco Control Programme: The main aim of this program is to create the awareness in public regarding the harmfulness of tobacco and to reduce the production of tobacco.
• The program was launched in 2007-2008.
• Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP): Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP) was launched in 2016.
• And the objective is to provide free of cost dialysis services to all patients Below Poverty Line (BPL) at district hospitals.
• National Oral Health Programme: The National Oral Health Programme (NOHP) was launched during 2014 – 15.
• The main theme of this Programme is to provide the affordable & quality oral health care delivery.
• National Mental Health Programme: The government of India has launched the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) in 1982 Health Programme (NMHP).

The main theme of this Programme is to ensure the availability of minimum mental health care to the public.

Patients’ responsibilities on medications: What people have to do for the public health care?  and what are the responsibilities should they follow. As a patient what kind of responsibilities do we have to take care?

Ask Questions (?)

By asking the questions, we will know how to build our public health care literacy…… hence, we will get to know how to eradicate the medication errors.

Asking the health care professional about the condition or the disease condition and after it asking about the medications and usages, asking about the diet plan (like what kind of food we can take during the medication time since there are food-drug interactions are there), drug frequency, dosage, route of administration, food-drug & drug-drug interactions, follow up schedule, etc….

Healthcare professionals will provide all details regarding the health Diseases & it’s Prescribed and Non-prescribed drugs and vaccines importance information.

Physicians will diagnose the disease and will prescribe the pharmacological treatment plan to the patient after knowing the disease symptoms and previous medical condition and medications to the pharmacist to dispense the medications for the patient.

And here the Hospital pharmacist (HP) will provide the total medications information to the public.

Clinical Pharmacist (CP)will provide the medication uses and its importance. CP gives the details about the Adverse drug reactions, toxicity, over dosage, missed dose, withdrawal symptoms, rational drug use, drug resistance and useful apps usage.

Some drugs show the unexpected side effects those are called as Adverse drug reactions. People should use the drugs up to the date of physician’s prescription and should take the medication at what time doctor has prescribed and they should take the dosage as prescribed if any increases the dosage (over dosage) it may accumulates in the liver and shows the toxicity. And it will damage the all-main organs in the body and may leads to death if there is no proper treatment. By any chance if you miss the dose, you should not double up the dose because it may cause the toxicity and if you abruptly stop the taking of medications shall again the disease symptoms will reappear is called as withdrawal symptoms. For example, if any bacterial infection is there and the patient has used the antibacterial drugs and if the patient abruptly stops the medication by observing the cured bacteria infection. Since there is no symptoms of bacterial infection patient abruptly stops the medications, then it may lead to formation of bacterial resistance. Hence, the bacteria again show the increased infection and the antibiotics should not show any results know.

Hence, the Physicians says that should not stop the usage of medications. Follow the instructions and use the entire course of the medications.

Community pharmacist will explain the 5R’s (rational drug therapy) the right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right route, and the right time. By these good therapeutic results, we can see in the patient & reduce the ADR’s and they will explain the total health care schemes and free treatment schedules, ADR’s reporting, OTC drugs and all the health benefits to the public. Mainly they will explain how to use the health beneficial apps etc.

Patient has the responsibility to inform their health issues to the health care professionals to get the good health care community.

“PREVENTION IS BETTER WHEN PUBLIC HAS

GOOD HEALTH LITERACY”