THE BREWSTER TRUST congratulates son of the late Maria Holder, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Maria Holder Memorial Trust, Christopher Holder, his Board and operational team on the opening of the Maria Holder Diabetes Centre located in Warrens, St. Michael.
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart officially opened the new centre on 1st February 2014, which has been funded by Medicor Foundation Liechtenstein; the charity’s President, Prinz Eugen von und zu Liechtenstein, was present to hand over the facility to Barbados.
Media reports
Hoping to save limbs
KNOWN UNOFFICIALLY as the amputation capital of the world, Barbados should see a drastic reduction in the severing of human limbs caused by diabetes. This is the prognosis of chairman of the Barbados Diabetes Foundation, Dr Oscar Jordan, who said yesterday that the new Maria Holder Diabetes Centre should reduce amputations by 30 per cent within five years and free up bed space at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).
“It will, through education and early intervention, reduce the number of people developing end-stage complications such as blindness and end-stage kidney disease requiring dialysis. [It] will reduce the number of amputations by at least 30 per cent within the first five years and therefore significantly reduce the bed stress at the QEH. “In so doing, we will reduce the burdensome costs to Government of managing diabetes,” Jordan said at the opening of the centre at Warrens.
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, who gave the feature address, revealed that over 300 diabetics per year were expected to benefit from services at the centre, which was funded primarily by the late Swiss-born resident Maria Holder and the Medicor Foundation of Liechtenstein. Stuart said Government had leased the land to the centre and would refer patients to it via the Ministry of Health at this time when public finances were hard-pressed to entertain new health care programmes. The array of the centre’s services, he added, should see “in excess of 300 persons with diabetes from the private and public healthcare sectors . . . benefit from this service on an annual basis”. “The Government of Barbados will review this programme after about two years,” he told the audience that included several health care professionals, Holder’s son Chris Holder, Medicor Foundation president Prinz Eugen and Minister of Health John Boyce. Stuart noted that about 18 000 Barbadians, or 14.4 per cent of the population, were diabetic and, based on World Health Organisation projections, another 9 000 people had most likely contracted the disease but were unaware or asymptomatic. He added that some 18 per cent of Barbadians over the age of 40 were diabetic, 90 per cent of them classified with Type 2 diabetes, which often resulted from unhealthy diets, lack of physical activity and smoking. “In a study commissioned by CARICOM in 2001, researchers found that as much as five per cent of Barbados gross domestic product (GDP) was spent on the management of diabetes and hypertension . . . . It was determined that this cost was underestimated,” he added. He said his Government would therefore subscribe to an “all-of-Government” and “all-of-society” approach to addressing a national response to diabetes and other chronic non-communicable diseases. Stuart said the centre, part of a continuum from primary to specialist care and finally “higher level specialist care at the QEH”, should guide clinical practice in Barbados. (Nation, Ricky Jordan)
Cross-country fight against diabetes coming
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has announced that authorities will be ramping up the fight against diabetes. He said this is necessary in light of the ailment being second only to heart diseases as the leading cause of death among residents. Some 18,000 people in Barbados are known to have diabetes. Another 9,000 may have it and not even know, the prime minister said as he addressed the opening of the Maria Holder Diabetes Centre in Warrens on Saturday. “A useful approach to combat these diseases will involve the creation of linkages among sectors including health, agriculture, transport, finance, education, youth and sport. Therefore my government will subscribe to an ‘all-of-government’ and ‘all-of -society’ approach to address a national response to CNCDs like diabetes,” he said. The Maria Holder Diabetes Centre would provide specialised preventative, therapeutic and rehabilitative care to new patients and those with difficult situations. “It is estimated that in excess of 300 persons with diabetes from the private and public health care sectors will benefit from this service on an annual basis,” Stuart said further. (Barbados Today, George Alleyne)
300 to benefit yearly
It is anticipated that annually over 300 diabetics will benefit from the services provided by the Maria Holder Diabetes Centre for the Caribbean. Officially opening the state-of-the-art centre yesterday evening, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart said that Government would review this programme after two years. “Additionally, the centre will be part of a continuum of care from the primary care level, through specialist care at this centre to higher level specialist care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, if necessary. This will effectively provide standards of care that can guide clinical practice throughout the country and improve the overall management of diabetes,” he stated. Outlining that this private/public sector partnership would provide quality health care and services for diabetics, Stuart expressed his expectations that the centre will provide preventative, therapeutic and rehabilitative interventions for both the newly diagnosed diabetic, as well as the diabetic in cases that are difficult to control or with reversible complications. “Public patients who will be referred to the centre will have to meet pre-approved criteria for referral and will receive intense clinical care over a six month period that will involved interaction with diabetes trained doctors, podiatrists, dieticians and behaviour specialists. The centre therefore will provide an array of clinical services under one establishment that will provide holistic patient-centred care,” he indicated. The Prime Minister further explained that the facility would not only look at clinical care and community outreach but also be involved in surveillance and research in this disease.
Saying that the centre was a major way to honour his mother’s memory and the work she had done in the fight against the disease, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Maria Trust Holder Fund Christopher Holder expressed his wish that more Barbadians would make an effort in getting healthy. He also suggested that Government look at removing duties from gym equipment. (Barbados Advocate, JMB)