Health Ministry Taking Steps to Enhance ‘Know Your Numbers’ Initiative

The Ministry of Health and Wellness will be implementing several key strategies to enhance the effectiveness of the ‘Know Your Numbers’ initiative.

Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, made the disclosure during a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday (January 28).

The Know Your Numbers initiative aims to facilitate 500,000 screenings to help citizens identify their risk of chronic diseases, provide client-centred screening services to target population, and enable the appropriate and timely referral and linkage of clients with adverse results for further diagnostics, treatment and care services.

Dr. Tufton said the strategies include strengthening of regional outreach and accessibility.

“[This includes] the deployment of additional mobile screening units to underserved areas, particularly rural parishes, to enhance coverage and address regional disparities and broaden the reach of screening activities,” he stated.

“What we have found is that, even though we have nearly 330 health centres across the country which serve primary care and are community-based, there is still a large portion of the population that wants a more direct intervention. They want the screening to be brought to them and, indeed, it’s a trend now,” Dr. Tufton added.

The Ministry will, additionally, be increasing the number of testing sites and implementing more outreach programmes in the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) as well as underserved peri-urban areas to close healthcare access gaps.

“[We will also be] developing region-specific health education campaigns targeting high-risk populations, with a focus on blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and other non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors,” Dr. Tufton said.

Another strategy is fostering more collaborations with local organisations, workplaces and faith-based groups to increase participation in screening activities and assist with promoting physical activity, healthy diets and stress management.

Male health advocates are also going to be encouraged to lead screening efforts and health promotion initiatives.

In addition, the Ministry will be improving referral and follow-up systems by strengthening referral mechanisms to ensure timely linkages to care for individuals with abnormal test results.

Dr. Tufton said the Ministry will also be undertaking the standardisation of data collection and monitoring protocols to improve tracking of screening results and linkage to care.

“The implementation of these strategies is expected to increase screening participation to achieve the target, enhance adherence to follow-up care and, ultimately, contribute to public health outcomes nationwide vis-à-vis NCD reduction,” the Minister added.

A total of 220,639 screenings have been conducted under the initiative, as at November 2024, representing 44.1 per cent of the 500,000 target.