Rainbow Medical Centre trains doctors, other health workers on diabetes foot

Determined to equip Nigerian doctors, other health workers and people living with diabetes with basic knowledge and skills on diabetes care and to stem the steady increase of diabetes foot, a major complication of diabetes mellitus, in the country, Rainbow Specialist Medical Centre, a private hospital with focus on the management of diabetes and other endocrine and metabolism conditions, has announced plans to host its annual diabetes foot and podiatry workshop.

Medical Director of the centre and coordinator of the Diabetes Podiatry Initiative Nigeria (DPIN), Dr. Afoke Isiavwe, in a statement, said the workshop, the 5th edition, is being organised to address the high rate of amputation among Nigerians living with diabetes, which has been reported to be as high as 53.2 per cent of the number of people with foot ulcer in some centres.

This makes diabetes foot the most common cause of non-traumatic amputation in the lower extremities in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world.

International training faculty from the World Walk Foundation, Jamaican Chapter, will conduct the 2018 edition of the workshop, according to the release.

It will also feature a two-day diabetes and hypertension series for Primary Care Health Practitioners, “the first point of call for persons living with diabetes.”

“It is important to equip these group of healthcare workers with necessary skills in these two common conditions to detect initiate correct treatment and also know when to refer patients for further care,” the release further said.

Isiavwe also disclosed that people living with diabetes would receive free diabetes foot check during the period at Dover Hotel, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, and the workshop venue.