BY NORM TOLLINSKY
Diabetes care in Thunder Bay took a major leap forward in September with the relocation of Diabetes Health Thunder Bay, a St. Joseph’s Care Group program, and the establishment of the new Centre for Complex Diabetes Care at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
Thunder Bay is one of the first cities in Ontario to align with the three-tier chronic disease management model championed by the Ontario Diabetes Strategy, said Penny Anguish, vice-president, complex care and physical rehabilitation and chief nursing officer at St. Joseph’s Care Group.
The theory is that the needs of 55 per cent of chronic disease patients can be met in primary care. One level up, Diabetes Health Thunder Bay provides more intensive education, while the new hospital-based Centre for Complex Diabetes Care looks after the complications arising from diabetes.
Prior to the establishment of the hospital-based program, Diabetes Health Thunder Bay worked with specialists to address complications, but it wasn’t an ideal role for a community-based program, said Anguish. “It’s really something that needs to be associated with tertiary care.”
From its new location at the St. Joseph’s Heritage site on Red River Road and Martha, Diabetes Health Thunder Bay provides education programs to 3,000 active clients and receives between 100 and 150 referrals every month from family physicians.
Funded by the Northern Diabetes Health Network, the program offers one-on-one counselling by nurses and dietitians, as well as group classes for children, adults and pregnant women with Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes. Diabetes Health Thunder Bay is also designated as an insulin pump training centre for northwestern Ontario.
The new facility boasts two telemedicine rooms for consultations with patients outside Thunder Bay and training for new hires at diabetes education centres throughout the region. There are classrooms, an examination room for physicians and chiropodists, and offices for staff to meet with clients.
St. Joseph’s Care Group, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre teamed up to submit a joint proposal for a Level 3, hospital-based program in the summer of 2010 in response to a Ministry of Health call for proposals.
Located in the Medical Centre building adjacent to the hospital, the Centre for Complex Diabetes Care provides patients with access to a wide range of specialists, including cardiologists, gastroenterologists and nephrologists who will hold clinics to care for patients experiencing diabetes-related complications. The centre received $2.6 million for the 2011-2012 funding year and will have 14 staff in Thunder Bay and four in Sioux Lookout.
Once their acute issues are resolved, patients are referred back to Diabetes Health Thunder Bay to help them remain stable.
By following a regime of healthy eating and active living, patients experience fewer complications, have a better quality of life and are less of a burden on the health-care system.
An estimated 2.7 million Canadians, representing 7.6 per cent of the population, are living with diabetes. In Ontario, the figure is 8.3 per cent and projected to rise to 11.9 per cent by 2020. The North West LHIN serves a population of approximately 44,000 people self-identifying as Aboriginal and the prevalence of diabetes among First Nations adults is estimated to be 19.7 per cent.
www.sjcg.net
www.tbh.net
