The Min­istry of Health has an­nounced the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the re­vised Chron­ic Dis­ease As­sis­tance Pro­gramme (CDAP), ef­fec­tive Oc­to­ber 1.

The re­vi­sion fol­lows a com­pre­hen­sive re­view com­mis­sioned on June 5 by Min­is­ter of Health Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe, as part of the Gov­ern­ment’s Health Re­form Pro­gramme. The CDAP Re­view Com­mit­tee was tasked with as­sess­ing the pro­gramme’s clin­i­cal, op­er­a­tional, and fi­nan­cial per­for­mance.

The com­mit­tee found that while CDAP con­tin­ues to serve as an im­por­tant pub­lic health ini­tia­tive, its drug list, di­ag­nos­tic sup­port, and over­all struc­ture re­quired up­dat­ing to align with cur­rent med­ical needs.

As a re­sult of the re­view, more than 300,000 cit­i­zens will now have ac­cess to an ex­pand­ed and im­proved list of med­ica­tions for chron­ic dis­eases. The ad­di­tion­al med­i­cines avail­able un­der the re­vised CDAP in­clude Losar­tan Potas­si­um 50mg tablets, Clopi­do­grel Bisul­phate 75mg tablets, Risperi­done 2mg tablets, Ser­tra­line 50mg tablets, and Ro­su­vas­tatin 20mg tablets.

Min­is­ter Bo­doe said the up­dat­ed CDAP en­sures safer and more ef­fec­tive treat­ment op­tions, greater ac­cess to med­i­cines in rur­al ar­eas, stronger di­ag­nos­tic sup­port, and cost sav­ings aimed at de­liv­er­ing im­proved health­care for cit­i­zens.

The Min­istry of Health stat­ed that it re­mains com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing the health and well­be­ing of the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion.