Diabetes mellitus in Barbados: an assessment of the CCMRC/Ministry of Health's effort to improve management in the public sector - abstract

ABSTRACT

The clinic notes of 172 diabetic patients who attended public clinics during a two week period in 1993 were analyzed. Just over one third of the patients had acceptable blood sugars and blood pressures. As a result of this audit, three half-day workshops were held with all the primary health care staff invited. The consultations, along with similar Caribbean-wide workshops eventually lead to the development of new guidelines, 'Managing Diabetes in primary Care' (CCMRC, 1995). A new audit in 1995, targeting the same public clinics as in 1993, found that in the 183 patients who visited these clinics over a comparable period four months after the guidelines were distributed, the diabetic care was only marginally better than in 1993, with still more than half of the patients having uncontrolled disease. (AU).