15 amputations at hospital up to April 30

Health Secretary Dr Agatha Carrington, second from left, sit with   presenters at the opening of the 4th Annual Family Medicine Conference held over the weekend at the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort in Lowlands.
Health Secretary Dr Agatha Carrington, second from left, sit with presenters at the opening of the 4th Annual Family Medicine Conference held over the weekend at the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort in Lowlands.

Fifteen amputations on diabetic patients were done at the Scarborough General Hospital up to April 30. In 2015, there were 51 amputations at the hospital, in 2016 there were 46 and in 2017, there were 47 amputations.

So revealed Health Secretary Dr Agatha Carrington, speaking at the opening of the 4th Annual Family Medicine Conference held over the weekend at the Magadalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort in Lowlands. She also revealed that “health centre reports for some eastern villages, particularly the communities of Glamorgan/Belle Garden, Goodwood/Pembroke and Mt St George, estimate that 190, 164 and 110 persons respectively, are living with diabetes.”

Carrington also noted that the prevalence of diabetes in Trinidad and Tobago was estimated to be 14.5 percent with about 88-90 percent of patients having type 2 diabetes. And there are some 140,300 undiagnosed cases and approximately 140,000 persons aged 20-69 years living with the condition, she said.

She said the Ministry of Health has reported that over the last three decades, there has been a 350 percent increase in diabetic cases, that nearly 1,594 deaths have been attributable to diabetes, and 50 percent of deaths occur before age 65. Calling for a multi-disciplinary approach to dealing with diabetes and reducing the number of amputations, she said research has shown that once individuals with specialised training utilise their skills through multidisciplinary health care teams, they “may increase efficiency and effectiveness and may improve outcomes in children with type 2 diabetes.” She added that “in the case of foot care clinics...a number of studies have reported that multidisciplinary foot care programmes have successfully reduced lower-extremity amputation rates.”

Carrington said under her stewardship at the North West Regional Health Authority, a Diabetic Foot Care Management Programme was developed, which saw a 40 percent decrease in the number of lower extremity amputations after five years.

She said, “coordination of activities between various disciplines involved in diabetes-related foot care including surgeons, medical specialists, podiatrists, diabetes educators, and orthotists appears to be very important for lowering amputation rates.”

Carrington also suggested that community health workers could be trained to assist in providing diabetes healthcare and education. “Through their understanding of the community’s language, cultural beliefs and traditions, and barriers to care, community health workers can help health care professionals and their patients achieve more effective diabetes prevention and management and make better use of the health care system,” she said.

She encouraged participants at the workshop to continue to work collaboratively to address the challenges relating to diabetes and change the culture in the country.

“People with diabetes can live long and healthy lives when their diabetes is detected and managed properly,” she said. The Conference was hosted by the Caribbean College of Family Physicians (Tobago Chapter) in Association with Health Caribbean Incorporated under the theme ‘Diabetes – A Multidisciplinary Approach to Care’.

Attendees included specialists in different fields and included local, regional and international presenters as well as general practitioners, surgeons, dentists, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists and other allied health professionals.

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