MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton says the Know Your Numbers campaign here Friday helped to “save lives”, as a large number of the more than 600 screened were unaware they had non-communicable diseases and other health conditions.

“We have saved lives by this exercise because there are people who were on the verge of getting a stroke, losing a limb, maybe getting a heart attack, and the intervention allows us to give guidance and counselling. I am very pleased with the programme. I think it is very fit for purpose, in that it is responding to the population,” he said during the health fair in Mandeville.

The fair, which was held on the grounds of Wesley Methodist Church, saw 649 people being medically examined.

“It is creating and making it more easy and attractive to people who are just walking on the street to just come in and get checked rather than going to a health centre, and indeed, from a policy perspective, we need to do more of this, because a big part of our population are people who are suffering from lifestyle diseases,” Dr Tufton said.

He added that in recent years many Jamaicans lives have been saved due to similar interventions during health fairs.

“There was a woman who we did screening for a year or two ago in the Mandeville Market, where she was a vendor. We had to move her from the testing site to the hospital because her blood pressure was that high. She was on the verge of a stroke and was appreciative,” he said.

“There are people out there who don’t know the condition they have and that is why we keep reminding people to do your annual physical [check-up]. It is very important,” added Tufton.

He pointed to the benefits of health fairs in taking the burden off public health facilities.

“It also positively impacts the crowding out of our hospitals and accident and emergency wards, because if we intervene early, we avoid people getting into a crisis situation,” he said.

“The tests reveal a lot, and part of the exercise is to do an analysis and to see the state of the population and to ensure that we do follow-ups for people who have [health] issues. We have detected a lot of persons who are diabetic, who never knew they are diabetic, hypertensive at the time of testing. We have had to refer [people]. On average, we have been seeing like 25 per cent of those that we have screened having one issue or the other,” he added.

Member of Parliament for Manchester Central Rhoda Crawford also pointed to the vast benefits of the Ministry of Health’s Know Your Numbers campaign.

“It is an excellent initiative to deliver free health-care service to Jamaicans. The target for here was 600. People are appreciative of this initiative… It helps to take the burden off the public health facilities that we have in and around Mandeville and Manchester,” she said.

Senior citizen Karlene Williams, 75, expressed gratitude for benefiting from the health fair.

“I came here to get my check-up and everything is good. I am happy that I was able to come here and get through. I normally do my check-up every six months. I did a check-up for sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, and my heart,” she said.