By M Margaret Burke
THE GPHC hosted its second “One-Day Workshop on Diabetic Retinopathy” for Health Care Professionals for Region Four (the East Coast Demerara area) at Project Dawn on Sunday, June 25, 2017.

The workshop, which lasted for most of the day, was geared towards general practitioners and nurses, with the objective of increasing awareness of diabetic complications of the eye, known as Diabetic Retinopathy.

The GPHC’s Department of Ophthalmology is the coordinating stakeholder of the Guyana Diabetic Retinopathy Programme of the Ministry of Public Health’s Guyana Diabetes Care Project. The programme aims to introduce screening and treatment of Diabetic Eye Disease in the public system.

This programme is funded by the World Diabetes Federation and has multiple stakeholders assisting in the execution of the project, such as the University of Toronto and Orbis International.

As part of this project, human resource development involves raising the awareness about Diabetic Retinopathy amongst health care professionals (such as general practitioners and nurses). A total of 27 health care professionals were trained in sessions about diabetes, nutritional aspects of diabetes care, counselling of persons with diabetes, how the disease affects the eye, screening for diabetic retinopathy and they were also taught how to examine the eye during practical sessions. At the end of the workshop, participants gave positive reviews on the workshop and indicated that they have a better understanding of how diabetes affects the eye.

The training team comprised GPHC staff and the curriculum/agenda of the workshop was developed by the Department of Ophthalmology. The training team of seven comprised personnel from various levels at GPHC and they included two ophthalmologists, a government medical officer, an optometrist, a diabetes educator and nutrition counsellor, a clerk and a nursing assistant.

A similar workshop was held earlier this year at the Suddie Regional Hospital, Essequibo, in Region Two on Monday, March 27, 2017. A total of 27 participants were trained (15 Nurses and 12 General Medical Practitioners). (mercilinburke2017@gmail.com)
Nutrition Educator, Ms. Lambert, lecturing to workshop participants at Project Dawn on Sunday, June 25th