$50M Diabetes Centre opens at Lusignan

The country's first Comprehensive Diabetes Centre was on Saturday opened at Lusignan, East CoastDemerara(ECD).

The G$50 million centre located in the compound of theLusignanHealthCentreis set to offer holistic care to diabetic patients from Lusignan and other central locations along the East CoastofDemerara.

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony said that the initiative is geared towards reducing the instances of fatalities, caused by diabetes. He disclosed that the prevalence of diabetes in Guyana is “relatively” high with some 50,000 people livingwiththedisease.

And such, Dr Anthony said there is need for a primaryhealthcaresystemso thatpersonscanbediagnosed ina“better”wayandtheycan get into the habit of having preventativecheckups.

“If people start doing preventative checkups, then we would be able to identify things very early and we would be able to prevent or delay the onset of a lot of chronicdiseases,”hesaid.

The Health Minister explained that, “This centre will provide a holistic approach to the care of diabetic patients and stymie the development of i r r e v e r s i b l e complications…”

“We want to demonstrate over another year or so… We'll do an evaluation to see if this has been effective, if this is reducing the complications of diabetes… if this is delaying in some cases.Wewanttoassessallof that and if we see what we envisage that this is working, and then this model will be replicated in other parts of our country,” Dr Anthony said.

The centre will offer a host of services including foot care management, eye care screening, laboratory t e s t i n g , h e a r t c a r e management, endocrinology, kidney care, radiology services, dietary and mental c o u n s e l l i n g a n d p h y s i o t h e r a p y a n d rehabilitation services, as part of the ministry's effort to decrease the number of fatalities linked to noncommunicablediseases.

C h a i r m a n o f t h e Presidential Commission of thePreventionandControlof N o n - C o m m u n i c a b l e Diseases (NCDs), Dr Leslie Ramsammy commended the initiative.

He said, “We believe that from this centre, actions will be taken to improve the services that we provide for diabetes care around the country,”heasserted.

Meanwhile, PAHO Representative, Luis Codina expressed, “PAHO is confident that the services provided at the centre will ensure better management and patients affected by d i a b e t e s a n d i t s complications.”

F a m i l y M e d i c i n e Specialist, Dr Indira Bhoj noted the opening of the centre represents a “shift” in thewayprimaryhealthcareis delivered.

“Diabetes care revolves around goal setting and achieving targets This requires a shift in perspective by patients but mostly i m p o r t a n t l y b y practitioners,”shesaid.

Dr Bhoj disclosed that the centre will also support laboratory testing for all healthfacilitiesalongtheeast coastcorridorandatthesame time and become a training hub for medical personnel in diabetesmanagement.