The main objective is to improve the quality of treatment and care for people with diabetes and thereby prevent severe diabetes complications throughout Ethiopia. This will be reached by training of health care professionals, as well al increased access to treatment and care by establishing outpatient services in rural areas of Ethiopia.
Aiming to decentralise access to diabetes treatment and care, WDF10-508 is being implemented in 12 regional hospitals outside of the capital Addis Ababa, namely Awassa, Mekelle, Jimma, Dire Dawa, Bahir Dar, Nekemt, Adama, Assella, Dessie, Abarminch, Wolaita and Harar.In the first phase of the project, physicians and nurses will be trained based on the IDF-Africa’s Clinical Guidelines and Diabetes Education Manual. The training sessions will be conducted by members of the medical faculty of the Addis Ababa University and it will last for four days. One year after this training, all participants will be invited to a two-day refresher course to share learning and gain further skills to improve the quality of the care provided. This course will also work as a feedback forum, where areas that need improvement will be identifiedTraining will be conducted for health care professionals from 12 different regions of Ethiopia, which will make care and treatment of diabetes accessible for people living in areas with few opportunities for treatment of this disease Through the two training sessions, the health care professionals will be provided the necessary tools to manage the routine treatment and care of people with diabetes in their respective regional hospitals. Additionally, they will be taught how to teach their co-workers, to secure continued care and treatment of diabetes.The 12 regional hospitals will be equipped with basic materials for diabetes diagnosis, management and patient education. Outpatient services will be offered twice a week in the afternoon in facilities that can cater to needs of 40 people each time. Posters will be placed at the training sessions and small booklets will afterwards be distributed to the literate part of the population or to people with literate family members. The Ministry of Health (MoH) is expected to undertake the continuation of the activities initiated in this project. In collaboration with the Ethiopian Diabetes Association (EDA), the MoH will continue to reach out to vulnerable people in rural areas of Ethiopia, to prevent development of severe complications due to diabetes. At the end of the project EDA together with all partners will organise review meetings with the aim of evaluating the project and disseminating the result.
• 33 doctors and 39 nurses trained • 12 regional hospitals equipped • 17,276 patients provided improved care• 12,000 patient education booklets produced