THE Ministry of Health and Wellness has embarked on a programme to encourage Jamaicans to screen for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to know their health status.

The campaign, dubbed Know Your Numbers, seeks to encourage yearly health screening to reduce the prevalence of lifestyle diseases and premature mortality.

“This Know Your Numbers campaign is going to play a pivotal role in public education moral suasion, encouraging and providing the opportunity for more Jamaicans to screen… The Adopt-A-Clinic Programme is the right [intervention] to support an activity such as this,” Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said.

Dr Tufton was addressing the official ceremony for the adoption of Golden Spring Health Centre in St Andrew, on September 8.

The centre has been adopted by the Watson Family RalRosa Foundation for a period of three years under the Ministry’s Adopt-A-Clinic Programme.

This is a strategic programme that seeks to proactively leverage the philanthropic support of the private sector and Diaspora to play a more critical role in improving the primary health-care system.

“It is fundamental as part of the way forward because most of us won’t know that we are sick until [a negative health event takes place],” he said.

Minister Tufton said the ministry has started the screening process to encourage Jamaicans to do regular health checks so as to know their status.

The ministry has set a target of 500,000 screening tests to be done this year. This is to empower Jamaicans with the opportunity to know their health-risk profile in order to make the necessary lifestyle changes.

Core services to be offered include screening for body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, vision, cholesterol, HIV and syphilis. Expanded services will include ECG, prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, dementia and frailty tests and immunisation.

The programme will also feature a pathway to care which ensures that once diagnosed with any chronic illness, people can immediately be referred for treatment.