THE Provincial Health Office of Davao Oriental, in cooperation with global private-public partnership Changing Diabetes in Children, will establish insulin hubs across the province.
The insulin hub aims to provide free insulin treatments to children with type 1 diabetes in Davao Oriental. One of the services offered with the partnership between the province and Changing Diabetes in Children is free insulin for children (0 to 24 years old) in the province with Type 1 Diabetes.
“We will be establishing insulin hubs in the different hospitals of Davao Oriental. Now, isa pa lang ang insulin hub natin, which is in Mati City in our provincial health office,” says Provincial Health Office Dr. Reden Bersaldo.
He says the immediate plans for the program are to deploy these insulins, including their commodities, such as the syringes.
“It will be distributed to the different district hospitals near where the patients are residing,” Bersaldo said during his guesting at the recent Healthy Davao Media Forum held at SM City Davao.
He added that the initiative could help children keep their treatment schedule or get their supplies on time.
Aside from insulin, the program also provides glucometer testing and HbA1c testing with machines already in the province.
Dr. Ivy Nolasco, Senior Technical Specialist for Inclusive Health Humanity and Inclusion, said that “Changing Diabetes in Children” is partnering with the local government of Davao Oriental and the Department of Health.
“The project is making sure that children with Type 1 Diabetes have access to services available only in hospitals,” Nolasco said.
Under the program, they will set up services in primary care facilities nearest to the patients.
Nolasco says Type 1 Diabetes is the most common type of diabetes among children. In the Philippines, based on the Type 1 Diabetes index, about 32,000 people are living with the condition.
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune condition where the immune system destroys insulin producing cells in the pancreas which leads to little or no insulin being produced. According to Nolasco, patients with Type 1 Diabetes need to have access to insulin.
The project in Davao Oriental started 2024 and started with capacity building among health workers in the province.
“One of the initial steps we did in Davao Oriental in order to push for the program is capacity building, all our nurses from the Department of Education where we identified as primary demand generation, our sources for the patients, we trained them,” Bersaldo says.
Aside from insulin, other services that will be offered under the five-year program includes providing patients with free glucometer to measure their blood sugar levels and HbA1c or glycated hemoglobin testing where a machine was provided to the provincial hospital. PIA DAVAO