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Step-by-Step Foot Care Project Launches In Barbados

Bridgetown/Tuesday July 14, 2009/PRMR Inc.

Simone McConnie COO of the Barbados Diabetes FoundationBarbados' high amputee rate is about to go down. So says podiatrist Simone McConnie, Chief Operating Officer of the Barbados Diabetes Foundation. This is to be achieved through the Step-by-Step Diabetes Foot Care Project to be launched this weekend at the Pan American Health Organization. The two day workshop is a joint effort between the Barbados Diabetes Foundation, Rotary Club of Barbados South and the Ministry of Health.

 

The programme which is targeted at health care professionals is designed to establish sustainable, integrated and low-cost health care capacity for attending to the diabetic foot, which will result in a reduction in lower limb complications and prevention of unnecessary amputations in people with diabetes.

It represents the first of a two-phase education programme designed to provide adequate tools for early detection of foot problems, which will allow for more timely treatments of problems related to diabetic feet. Phase two of the programme will be a series of public education forums hosted by Rotary Club of Barbados South, the Barbados Diabetes Foundation and the Barbados Podiatry Association which will begin in 2010.

A team of specialists from the UK, Germany and Tanzania who have facilitated the programme around the world will be on the island to deliver the workshop. The multidisciplinary team includes Ms Alethea Foster (Podiatrist) UK (team leader), Dr Stephan Morbach from Germany who is a specialist in diabetes management and Dr Abbas from Tanzania, where the project was first launched. They will be joined by local experts on diabetic foot care including Dr Christopher Warner, Prof. Anselm Hennis, Dr Oscar Jordan and the local Podiatrists.

The programme has been made possible through the support of Rotary of Ledbury UK, The World Diabetes Foundation, the international working group on the diabetic foot affiliated with the International Diabetes Federation and The Chronic Research Disease Center of Barbados.

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