Rapid urbanisation and economic development in China is fuelling the large increase in diabetes incidence.Unhealthy diets and lack of exercise result in a growing number of obese Chinese and as a result more than 40 million are now suffering from diabetes - a number that is increasing quickly.Yet, the overall health care capacity of China to diagnose and treat people with diabetes is limited. There is a severe shortage of qualified physicians to provide treatment and knowledge of the disease is scarce among the general population as well as policymakers and officials.The project seeks to improve the quality of care and level of patient awareness at community hospital level in China.
This project constitutes Phase II of WDF support to the Chinese Ministry of Health in its efforts to improve diabetes care and awareness in the country. Phase I, "National diabetes programme" (WDF02-036) was completed in December 2008.Phase I enabled the development of a National Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Guideline and almost 12,000 health care professionals from more than 50 cities were trained on its use. In addition, a model for integrated diabetes management was developed and piloted in 9 hospitals/community health centres.As a result of a recent policy change shifting the care for chronic conditions to community hospital level in order to off-load pressure at secondary care level, the Ministry of Health intends to strengthen the capacity of community hospitals to deal effectively with diabetes care, incl. patient education through this second phase of the intervention.A total of 1,025 community hospitals in 41 Chinese cities will be targeted over a 3-year period.Six cities have been selected by the Ministry of Health to act as "trial cities" for the policy. The selected cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Tiankin, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Qingdao.Initially, 600 health care professionals will be trained as trainers. These trainers will continue to train a total of 8,200 doctors and nurses from the targeted 1,025 community hospitals. The ratio of doctors/nurses will be 8:2 as fewer nurses are employed at the community hospital level.The training seeks to improve the health care professional awareness of diabetes and enhance their knowledge on diagnosis and treatment. Upon completion of training, the health care professionals are expected to carry out systematic diabetes screenings and subsequently provide effective treatment.Concurrently, routine patient education will be conducted. During half-day sessions health care professionals will educate diabetes patients about their condition and how to live with it.A total of 205,000 diabetes patients will participate in the education sessions. Since the participants are expected to transfer the messages they receive to their families and communities, the education is anticipated to generate a massive cascading effect.
• 8,998 health care professionals trained • 228,131 diabetes patients attended education sessions