Addressing health systems challenges for diabetes care in Pakistan
This policy brief make 5 recommendations to address health systems challenges for diabetes care in Pakistan
Abstract
Integrating diabetes management into routine primary care is feasible and acceptable, and can lead to improved assessment, diagnosis, prescription practices, patient education and adherence to follow-up appointments.
Based on research, the authors make 5 recommendations to address health systems challenges for diabetes care in Pakistan:
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Add more specific diabetes and hypertension drugs to the essential drugs list to improve supply at primary healthcare centres. The availability of drugs influenced the prescription rates at respective facilities.
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Invest in further staff supervision and support to help achieve universal adherence to the prescription protocols.
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Keep the prescription protocols simple. They found a very low prescription rate of preventive medicine, even when the medicine was made available.
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Use random blood glucose (RBG) testing at follow-up instead of fasting blood glucose (FBG)
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Make urine testing of diabetes patients universally available at primary healthcare facilities. 40% of diabetic patients had some degree of proteinuria. This study showed that using a urine dipstick makes urine testing more feasible in primary healthcare settings.
This research is supported by the Department for International Development’s COMDIS – HSD Programme which is led by the University of Leeds
Citation
COMDIS-HSD (2017). Addressing health systems challenges for diabetes care in Pakistan. COMDIS Policy Brief. Leeds: COMDIS-HSD
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