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Robust diabetic prevention programme to meet needs countrywide

Jul 09, 2010 News

By Sharmain Cornette

Guyana has been developing a very robust programme in terms of diabetes prevention and control, according to Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, and a key aspect of this programme is that the public health sector has better knowledge in relation to the number of persons living with chronic illness, where they reside, age groups and gender.
According to the minister, Guyana now has a very active diabetes registry.
“We ask that every family with a member that is diabetic should get in touch with the Ministry of Health so that we can make sure you are in the registry. This registry is very important because it will allow us to liaise with health facilities and with the health care providers so that we can ensure that proper care is being given.”
More importantly, Ramsammy emphasised, the registry will allow the ministry to deal directly with families. He related that when there is a need for literature or other information to be provided to persons living with diabetes, the registry would facilitate such communication.
The programme, as a result, is not just a general awareness activity but rather is one that is moving towards a direct communication venture, the Minister asserted.
Through the registry, he revealed, the Ministry will be able to monitor diabetes-related complications such as the development of eye and renal failure-type of problems and other types of complications such as neurological and cardiac illnesses.
“A growing problem that we are discovering in the world is the link between neuropsychiatric illnesses and diabetes, particularly areas such as depression and anxiety. This is a major concern to the Ministry of Health, so as we develop capacity for these things we want to be in direct contact with the families.”
And in order to improve service in addition to the registry, the Ministry has developed what is being described as an emerging model foot care programme.
To sustain this programme, efforts are being made to ensure that all health care personnel, and by extension all health care centres, are able to provide a basic screening tool for persons living with diabetes and the public in general.
This basic screening programme, the Minister said, has a 60-second duration, and all health care providers are mandated to be trained in this regard.
Additionally, another training programme has been developed which, according to the Minister, will hopefully utilise the knowledge and skills of persons living with diabetes to enable its promotion.
“This means that not only the health care providers but community and family members will be trained to do screening for healthy feet.”
A specialised foot care programme has also been developed, Minister Ramsammy divulged. In fact he boasted that one of the most active specialised foot care programmes in the Caribbean is located at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
“At the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation we are using sophisticated equipment to measure various aspects of changes in the feet such as the circulation of blood, so that we can project trouble. We don’t have to wait anymore for trouble to be overt, we can anticipate who is likely to develop problems…”
He explained that the purpose of the screening programme is to refer people from around the country to the specialised programme at the GPHC.
In the meantime, another level of service is being developed in order to ensure that people will not have to be referred directly to the GPHC from their health centres after basic screening. As such, the minister noted that efforts have been made to develop a mid-level foot care programme at all regional hospitals, all of which have some sophistication, backed by trained personnel, so that “we can provide such services to citizens wherever they live.”

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