Recently, a 50 year old construction worker was referred by an area hospital emergency room with a very broad weeping wound on the inside of his foot. Being a diabetic, this man had a high risk situation. The hospital was unable to care for his needs in a timely manner, so he was referred to our office. The heavy burden placed on our hospitals is a well known phenomenon, so it is not surprising that we are seeing more and more patients referred from the places that used to handle these cases themselves.
We make every effort to see at risk and infected conditions but it is becoming increasingly more and more difficult to accommodate the heavy load. And it will get worse.
The Canadian Diabetes Association recently reported the following:
In 2009, the Canadian Diabetes Association estimated that the rate of diabetes almost doubled from 2000-2010 from 1.3 million to approximately 2.5 million, and will continue to rise from 2010 to 2020 to approximately 3.7 million. While the number of Canadiansdiagnosed with diabetes is high, an additional 700,000 are estimated to have diabetes, but do not know it. Although these numbers are alarming, refinements to these estimates to be released by the Canadian Diabetes Association in the spring of 2011 based on new information indicate an even higher estimated prevalence for diabetes both now and in the future unless action is taken to address this coming tsunami. These revisions will also include the number of people living with prediabetes. About 50% of Canadians with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes. The increasing rate of diabetes and its complications are also a burden on our health care system and our economy. In 2009, the Canadian Diabetes Association estimated that in 2010, diabetes would cost Canada’s health care system an estimated $12.2 billion, up from $6.3 billion in 2000. By 2020, diabetes will cost our health care system $16.9 billion in direct health care costs (hospitalization, general practitioners, specialists, and medications), and indirect costs such as lost productivity due to disability and premature death.
Diabetes is only one disease that impacts heavily on the patients we see in our podiatry office. As you can see from the above, we can expect an even greater demand and burden on our health care professionals.
We need more podiatrists not less, as reported in my previous blogs. We need professionals who have the highest level of skills available to treat the patients who are suffering from the wide variety of diseases we see in our office