Experts discuss multi-pronged module for diabetic awareness and care

Can public-private partnerships in healthcare improve diabetes management in the country? An expert panel of diabetologs has authored a report showing why diabetes management becomes arduous, including lack of disease awareness among the community, poor access to quality care, scarcity of trained staff, monitoring facilities and the unavailability of anti-diabetic drugs.
Published in Heliyon and titled ‘Healthcare delivery model in India with relevance to diabetes care’, the experts proposed a white paper model to resolve major challenges faced the Indian diabetes care sector for effective therapies. The expert author panel included Dr Ashok Kumar Das, Dr Banshi Saboo, Dr Anuj Maheshwari, Dr Mohanan Nair V, Dr Samar Banerjee, Dr Jayakumar C, Dr Benny P. V, Dr Sunil Prasobh P, Dr Anjana Ranjit Mohan, Dr Vasudevan Sambu Potty and Dr Jothydev Kesavadev.
Government initiatives are essentially required to deliver quality care to the maximum number of people with diabetes. The quality crisis of the Indian healthcare sector is well recognised. The required public health facilities in India count to about 74,150 health centres per million population, but the exing number comes to only half of the original requirement. The following are some of the findings and suggestions the authors.
· Public-private partnerships can improve access to healthcare, especially in remote areas.
· More than 80–90 per cent of the qualified doctors involved in the treatment of diabetes and associated disorders work in the private sector which is one of the reasons why patients prefer them.

· A public-private partnership is required for both clinical care and research.
· Trained healthcare staff is a significant prerequisite to delivering quality care.
· The patient-centered approach reduces long-term diabetes complications with the timely involvement of trained diabetes educators, community involvement, and maintenance of treatment regers.
· There is an urgent need to build a well-organised infrastructure and make exing healthcare facilities healthier to improve the quality of diabetes care and outcomes.
· The government should take necessary steps to avail effective use of diabetes technologies to reduce the diabetes treatment burden and to achieve quality care.

· Efforts and services are required at the grassroot level to set quality standards, underpin clinical governance, and contain the new-age diabetes pandemic.
· Regular programmes should be organised wherein senior doctors from secondary/tertiary level health facilities and medical colleges should mandatorily visit rural areas to help peripheral health workers improve their knowledge and skills.
The focus should be on diabetes education, proactive physician participation, extensive research and a well-planned healthcare system oriented towards diabetes care.