EVERY two hours in Australia a limb is amputated because of diabetic foot disease (DFD).
The condition which costs the health care system $1.6 billion a year and has mortality rates worse than many cancers, may be Australia least known major health problem according to the authors of a Perspective published by the Medical Journal of Australia.
DFD commonly develops from trauma when people have peripheral neuropathy or peripheral arterial disease and is complicated by infection.
Because neuropathy results in patients losing the ability to feel pain it can critically delay them going for treatment.
DFD is the country’s leading cause of amputation and Australia has the second highest diabetes-related amputation rate among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations.
According to the Perspective authors, led by Dr Peter Lazzarini, co-chairman of Diabetic Foot Australia this is “partially attributed to the lack of coordinated interdisciplinary DFD services in Australia”.
“We estimate that less than 10% of the 540 interdisciplinary DFD services needed to manage the 50,000 Australians with DFD are available,” Dr Lazzarini and colleagues wrote.
The said this was in stark contrast to the European nations that had the lowest diabetes-related amputation rates in the OECD, such as the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands.
These low rates were attributed to coordinated nationwide systems that recognised and reimbursed accredited interdisciplinary DFD services.
“Additionally, these nations’ systems regularly monitor and report DFD outcomes for national clinical benchmarking and research network purposes. Germany, for example, has nearly 300 accredited DFD services monitoring outcomes and contributing to research in their system, whereas Australia is yet to even enact a system.”
Diabetic Foot Australia has recently launched the Australian diabetes-related foot disease strategy 2018–2022 which has nine key recommendations including research funding.