With more than 50.7 million people affected, India holds a discouraging position as the country in the world with the second highest number of people living with diabetes, only recently surpassed by China. The incidence of diabetic ulcers is increasing rapidly, and many people do not receive proper or timely care for their wounds. Consequently, amputation rates are high and fatal outcomes not uncommon.Due to ignorance, apathy and over crowded medical facilities non-healing wounds are generally not given adequate attention and there are very few specialised wound care clinics in the country. Very often wounds are treated by unqualified practitioners/quacks in the rural areas or by junior grade paramedic staff without appropriate supervision.This lack of attention to non-healing wounds, particularly in case of people with diabetes poses a grave health and economic threat to individuals, families and the health care system with people receiving care when it is too late to prevent amputations or worse.From this point of view it is essential to strengthen the capacity of the entire health care system and equip health care professionals with the right tools to provide quality wound care management.The aim of the project is to improve diabetic wound care by facilitating workshops for doctors and nurses from medical colleges and universities in the following less developed states of India: Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Jammu & Kashmir.
The project is initiated by the NGO Diabetic Foot Society of India (DFSI) and will be implemented in partnership with the Association for Consumers Action on Safety and Health (ACASH).The project envisages upgrading and modernising current wound care practice in India. The main component involves training of medical and nursing students in wound care management techniques. The universities and colleges form an integral part of the health care system and represent an important actor in setting the agenda for health care practices.The main goal of the training workshops is to create a core group of trained medical professionals who will facilitate further training to health care workers at primary and secondary care level, thereby creating a cadre of wound care workers and specialists. After project completion, 2,880 students will have received training. The project envisages that the participating teaching institutes will subsequently implement the techniques, making wound care mandatory on the curricula.Furthermore, the project wishes to stimulate interest in conducting more research in the area of diabetic ulcers. And lastly, the project seeks to create awareness among diabetes patients about the severity of chronic wounds in order to encourage early and proper health care seeking behaviour.At a practical level, DFSI will divide the participating states into four regions. Each region will be responsible for identifying two university hospitals that are each supposed to run three workshops every year in 11 less developed states of India. 40 post graduate students as well as selected local health workers are expected to participate.The workshops will be conducted free of charge to ensure that the participants from poorer regions do not experience financial burden. Teaching will comprise comprehensive lectures as well as hands on training in wound care techniques (diabetic foot, ulcers and other diabetes-related wounds). Furthermore, students will be provided a wound care kit, enabling them to perform individual case studies.After having completed the workshop, each participant will be certified by DFSI and by the European Wound Management Association (EWMA).DFSI plans to roll out the programme to other regions once the three-year project period is over. As a result, the project envisions a 10% yearly reduction in the amputation rate throughout the intervention areas from 2012 and onwards.
• Educational material produced • Workshops in modern would care coducted • Docters and nurses from medical colleges and universities were trained