Joint venture: Twin cities first diabetic centre at PIMS inaugurated

Facility does not offer A1C test required to examine glucose levels.

ISLAMABAD:

Despite having one of the highest incidences of diabetes in the world, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) inaugurated a diabetic centre after a seven-year delay on Friday.

The Diabetic Foot Clinic was upgraded to a state-of-the-art upgraded diabetic centre in collaboration with a Danish pharmacy. The centre is the first of its kind in the public sector in the twin cities and will provide diagnostic facilities and treatment to diabetics according to international guidelines. It was inaugurated by Lars Rebien Sørensen, CEO and president of the Danish pharmacy Novo Nordisk.



The upgraded diabetic clinic has been set up in the old filter clinic of Pims just next to the main Out-Patient Department (OPD). It has been set up in four rooms, one of which has been designated for the Diabetic Foot Clinic. Four doctors will be present there from 8 am to 2pm and the rest will be on rotation. Diabetic patient data registration has also been initiated.

Speaking on the occasion, Sørensen said that diabetes can be treated effectively and can be prevented through awareness and healthy lifestyle.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Express Tribune, head of Medicine at Pims, Dr Jamal Zafar said that the foot clinic was established in 2007 and since then efforts were ongoing to establish a full-fledged diabetic centre. The main hurdle in the way to achieve this goal was budget constraint, he said.



He said this centre was the need of the hour as day by day patient load was increasing and due to lack of facilities it had become difficult to provide treatment according to international standards.

Dr Zafar said since the establishment of the clinic there was no mechanism to register or compile data on patients coming for treatment. It is estimated that every day on average 100 people visit the clinic out of which 20 are new patients. Almost 4,000 patients have been treated and hundreds of amputations have been averted, he added.

“The Diabetic Centre currently does not offer the A1C test required to examine glucose levels over two to three months,” he said.

Diabetes is now being diagnosed in young people aged between 20 to 30 years, which is alarming, he added. He was of the view that the a change in lifestyle was to blame as now people are more into consuming junk food and fizzy drinks and exercise less.

“There is a need to create awareness among people that the more they consume junk food or soft drinks, the more prone they will be to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure which leads to other complications like renal failure, he said.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, there are around 6.7 million people with diabetes in Pakistan. It is estimated that this number will rise to 12.8 million by 2035, which puts Pakistan among the top countries with the highest number of people suffering from diabetes.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2014.