Taiwan to aid SVG in diabetes prevention, control reform

Final preparations are being made to have local teams of doctors, nurses and dieticians trained in Taiwan to help with the prevention and control of diabetes.

At the first National Health and Wellness Commission meeting last Thursday, March 15, it was revealed that the new project, “Capacity Building Project for the Prevention and Control of Diabetes in St Vincent and the Grenadines” aims to build the capacity of health care personnel in pre-diabetes diagnosis and diabetes treatment.

Project manager Chen-Hua Fan explained that his team visited in April 2017 and discovered that the overall challenge in combating diabetes in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is the lack of integration of diabetes management systems, which includes lack of strategy planning and methodology; absence of an integrated approach targeting diabetes in health care facilities; lack of self care management knowledge and insufficient capacity in health promotion, as he outlined the layout of the project.

“First is a policy. Secondly is about health care facilities and thirdly is about self management and how we would operate… You will cooperate with Taiwan ICDF and St Vincent and our corporate hospital, Mackay Memorial Hospital…,” Huan Fan said.

He explained that two health officials will visit Taiwan to understand Taiwan’s policies in integrated care and health education programmes for one to two weeks. The two individuals are expected to design the SVG integrated diabetes care model with the assistance of Taiwan consultants.

Huan Fan continued that teams of health professionals, including dieticians, would visit Taiwan over the course of the project.

‘We will invite 15 medical professionals to Taiwan to receive the medical care, nursing and nutrition training – at least six to eight weeks in Taiwan. Also we will strengthen the hardware equipment, such as the HbA1C analysers and the foot care kits. And the third… We would invite three instructors from Health Promotion Unit, Hypertension and Diabetes Association and the community health care providers, such as those who would receive the promotion training course for six weeks in Taiwan,” Huan Fan explained.

The project further provides knowledge on diabetes and will allow those professionals who were trained in Taiwan to train other professionals upon returning to St Vincent and the Grenadines, among other activities.

Huan Fan expects that at least by the end of the year the first group of health professionals would visit Taiwan.

Taiwan had experienced a nine per cent average prevalence of diabetes and had taken strategic steps, which were successful in reducing their diabetic population.

The project costs US $2,031,096 and will run from February 1, 2018 to January 31, 2021.(CB)