Diabetes centre to have more clinical space
dubai — The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) revealed that it plans to expand the Dubai Diabetes Centre’s facilities and services to increase its patient capacity and add more specialities related to diabetes complications.
Dr Muhammad Hamed Farooqi, director and consultant endocrinologist at the Dubai Diabetes Centre, said the centre will redesign its current premises to add clinical space and specialties.
“As part of the expansions, we plan to add specialities related to complications of diabetes, such as nephrology. We also look forward to increasing our podiatry services,” he said.
Dr Farooqi said this will allow patients to receive all the diabetes– related health services for subspeciality care under one roof, instead of going elsewhere, something that has been requested by patients for some time now.
He said this will add additional services to the centre, which currently includes endocrinologists, diabetes nurse specialists, diabetes dietitian specialists, podiatrists, mental health counsellor, physiotherapists, retinal photographers, part-time ophthalmologist as well as support services, which include a pharmacy, gym and a phlebotomy facility (blood drawing).
Providing quality care to patients with diabetes is essential, especially after a survey conducted by
We plan to add specialities related to diabetes complications, such as nephrology. We look forward to increasing our podiatry services.” Dr Muhammad Hamed Farooqi, director, Dubai Diabetes Centre
the DHA’s Dubai Hospital revealed that the total prevalence of diabetes amongst Emiratis in Dubai is 19 per cent, while the total undiagnosed diabetes cases in Emiratis is 11 per cent and the rate of prediabetic Emiratis is 18.6 per cent.
Dr Muhammad Hamed Farooqi, director and consultant endocrinologist at the Dubai Diabetes Centre, said the latest statistics from 2016 found that 38,393 outpatients visited the outpatient centre, out of which 34,101 were follow-up patients and 4,292 were new patients. The data for 2017 is under compilation.
He said the majority of the patients were aged 40 to 70 years, 52.91 per cent were female patients and 47.09 per cent were males. He added that 75.06 per cent of the patients had Type 2 diabetes while the remaining suffered from Type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance, to name a few.
With the high prevalence of diabetes in the UAE, the Dubai Diabetes Centre was inaugurated in 2009 to provide comprehensive diabetes management, education and research under one roof.