By Prince Charles
Director General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu yesterday at JADE conference room, Transcorp Hotels, Calabar promised to partner with the centre to tackle the growing rate of diabetic retinopathy in Cross River State. She noted that CRS have more than 90,000 people living with diabetes and at such are at a risk of having diabetic retinopathy.But hope that with the right intervention the disease will be defeated.
On the State Government’s part, Dr Edu said His Excellency, Senator (Prof) Ben Ayade is very passionate about the healthcare of Cross Riverians and is also concern about the growing rate of the disease. “The state Government have come up with State Health Insurance Scheme that will enable taxable adult access healthcare for free, so with these law financing will not be a problem for the citizens. Part of our support to this initiative is to take the message down to rural areas and hard to reach areas, publicize and create jingles as part of the advocacy to educate people on ways to prevent diabetes, risk factors associated with the disease, community management and importance of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Screening said the DG.
DG promised to facilitate community eye care outreaches in the state. She further noted that doctors in the state need to be sensitive to the fact that failure to send a patient diagnosed with diabetes for eye screening is negligence. She called on diabetic patients to check their eyes for free at the diabetic retinopathy center in UCTH at least twice a year.
The workshop which is aimed on building a DM DR Screening collaboration with Primary care physicians in Calabar in order to improve referals and uptake of DR Screening services will also get the primary care physicians acquainted with the spectrum of services at the LIONS/UCTH Diabetes Centre especially the Diabetic Retinopathy screening services. Presently the essential services currently available at the centre includes Clinical care from diabetes, physician specialists (Endocrinologist) consultation, free yearly Retinopathy Screening, Diabetes education, Nutrition counseling, Diabetic foot care and metabolic clinic and laboratory services by the Chemical pathologists.
Present at the workshop were Provost, College of Medical Sciences, University of Calabar, Prof Maurice Asuquo, Dr Victor Oguntolu who spoke on Diabetic Mellitus; a growing epidemic, Dr Chineze Agweye who also spoke on Diabetic Retinopathy and Visual loss, Prof Victor Ansa, Dean Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Dr Nkanga Dennis former CMD UCTH. Dr Ofem Enang who spoke on managing DM through multidisciplinary teams and a host of other speakers drawn from Medical field.
