HAHN Medical Campaign Goes to Panagoda to Conduct Screening of Army Personnel

With the objective of raising health awareness programmes among officers and soldiers in the Army, the recently launched ‘Healthy Army – Healthy Nation’ (HAHN) campaign programme of the Narahenpita Military Hospital, went to the Army Cantonment at Panagoda on December 17, 2012.

Dr Susi Perera, President, Sri Lanka College of Community Physicians and the Director/Policy Analysis and Development at Ministry of Health as the Guest of Honour and Major General S.R Manawadu, Commander, Security Forces Headquarters – West as the Chief Guest graced the formal inauguration of the HAHN campaign at Panagoda on Monday (17) morning.

 With the increase of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), such as high blood sugar, high blood cholesterol, Heart diseases, Stroke, Chronic Lung Diseases, Chronic Kidney Diseases and obesity among Sri Lankans, the HAHN team took initiatives for the launch of this programme among Army personnel, too since many of those medical officers are serving military hospitals island-wide.

The HAHN medical team, comprised of Brigadier Dr. A.S.M. Wijewardane, Consultant Physician &   Campaign Co-ordinator, Brigadier Dr. N.K Ariyarathna, Consultant Physician, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. K.D. Duminda, Consultant Physician, Lieutenant Colonel Dr H. Jayasekara, Consultant Physician, Lieutenant Colonel Dr S. Semage, Consultant Community Physician and Dr A.S.A Safras, HAHN Secretary after establishing nine separate health stations at the Army Cantonment premises for this arrangement, screened nearly 1500 Army personnel serving there for Non-Communicable Diseases.

Station - 1 (body weight & height), Station - 2 (blood pressure monitoring), Station - 3 (fasting blood sugar monitoring), Station - 4 (doctor station), Station - 5 (ECG & Cholesterol monitoring), Station - 6 (nutrition), Station - 7 (correct behaviour & attitude), Station - 8 (child healthcare) and Station - 9 (women’s health), set up under the programme, examined all those Army personnel during the full-day programme and provided them with necessary onward consultations.

On the sidelines of the campaign, Dr Susi Perera, Brigadier Dr. A.S.M. Wijewardane and Mr Prasad Jayasinghe, delivered informative lectures on a few relevant topics, relevant to the day’s event, scheduled to be extended to all Army formations in the future to realize the final vision; “To Achieve the Highest Health Standards within the Sri Lanka Army”.

The inaugural introductory HAHN awareness programme kicked off at the Narahenpita Military Hospital a few weeks ago with the screening of a large number of Army personnel. Major General Dr. S. Munasinghe, Medical Advisor in the Army too was associated with the arrangement.  

Brigadier Dr. K.P Sumanapala, Director of Army Medical Services and Advisor to HAHN programme, Colonel Dr P.S Thilakarathna, Director, Narahenpita Military Hospital and a few more senior officers attended the inaugural occasion at Panagoda.