A NEW addition to Ballasalla Medical Centre will help to monitor the circulation in the feet of patients with diabetes.
The foot care kit was donated to the surgery by Friends of the Manx Diabetic as the organisation's first donation to a doctors' surgery in
the Island.
This donation illustrates that the focus of care for the diabetic is shifting to primary care at surgeries.
And responding to this, the Friends has recently renamed itself from Friends of the Manx Diabetic Centre to reflect the 'wider scope of what we do in the Isle of Man, according to chairman Henry Ramagge.
Ballasalla was the first natural choice as it is where diabetes specialist GP Dr Alison Blackman practices.
Dr Blackman, who worked at the Diabetic Clinic for 13 years, says she has a passion for diabetes.
She has more than 200 diabetics on her list – and that number is rising as diabetes rates throughout the Island and the UK increase.
In the UK, a case of diabetes is diagnosed once every three minutes and in the Island the incidence is 3.5% but rising, said Dr Blackman.
'Every diabetic should have foot check once a year more and more GPs are having to take on more of the diabetic care,' she said.
The kit – the cost of £817 was subsidised by a donation from Bradford and Bingley – will check for the pulses in the feet and also for nerve damage.
'By checking we can warn them if there's nerve damage,' said Dr Blackman.
'They might have shoes rubbing and not realise it. We can also encourage them to improve on the control of their blood sugar. If there's an issue they know about it.'
Mr Ramagge understands only too well about the ravages of deficient circulation caused by diabetes.
A diabetic since 1972 he has had both legs amputated, the left leg in 2002 and the right leg in 2007.
He said: 'Preventative care is better than letting it run.
'Eventually the Department of Health and Social Security will have to foot the bill and letting it run is not good for the patient or for the DHSS.'
14TH January 2009.