MoH hopes Diabetic Footcare Clinic will reduce need for surgical amputations

– over 100 surgeries recorded in 2023

The Ministry of Health (MoH) is hoping that, through its Diabetic Footcare Clinic which is soon to be established, persons living with diabetes can so protect themselves that there would be no need for amputations.
Despite efforts to effectively manage severe cases of diabetes in Guyana, 108 surgical amputations were performed in 2023 at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GHPC). These procedures are aimed at halting the spread of infections caused by diabetes, removing damaged tissue, and relieving intractable rest pain, among other things.
In a brief interview with this publication on Wednesday, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony revealed that there are plans to establish a diabetic clinic at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre (PRRC) in Georgetown.
He said the initiative is geared at making foot care services readily available to patients as Government moves to amplify limb preservation and combat the rising number of amputations in Guyana.

“…on average, I think that’s the number (of amputations) that we would normally have (in) a year. So, we want to decrease that (number), and one way of decreasing that is to have these foot clinics where people’s feet, who are diabetic, can be examined. You know, if you have signs of problems, then we fix those earlier,” Minister Anthony explained.
According to Dr Anthony, establishing the diabetic centre at the Rehabilitation Centre would create a one-stop operation, preventing the need for patients to make repeat visits.
“The persons who (are) amputees and would go to the Ptolemy Reid Centre for prosthesis and so on…we need to start a diabetic clinic there, so that when they go to Ptolemy Reid, they can get care, not just for the stump that they have, but also for their diabetes, which was the underlying condition. So, we are going to have a physician located there (who) can provide diabetic care for those patients,” he detailed.
Diabetes is the leading cause of amputation in Guyana. It accounts for 90 per cent of all limb losses in the country, and according to the International Diabetic Federation, some 66,000 persons are receiving treatment for diabetes in Guyana.
Responding to the need for greater awareness, care, and education in regard to this disease, the Health Ministry has updated Guyana’s New Standard on Diabetes Guidelines for Primary Healthcare. Through this initiative, healthcare professionals would no longer use glucometer machines to diagnose diabetes; instead, they would use HbA1c testing for diagnosis. The HbA1c test is a simple blood test that measures average blood sugar levels over the past three months, and is one of the most commonly used tests for diagnosing prediabetic and diabetic conditions.