Malta is a country with a population of just over half a million, yet each year around 500 full foot amputations take place.
This startling statistic comes from professors Alfred Gatt and Cynthia Formosa in the Department of Podiatry at the University of Malta. They are leading a project, titled ‘The Smart Insole Technology for the management of the diabetic foot’.
The device they are developing will attempt to reduce the incidence of diabetic foot complications in persons with diabetes.
Around 40 percent of patients who have diabetes worldwide have neuropathy. Pressure, which comes from walking, strains the foot and forms a wound, resulting into an ulcer which takes a very long time to heal. If it doesn’t heal, it could lead to further complications such as infections, which may spread and would lead to amputation.
Professor Gatt said: “Having a part or your whole limb amputated leaves many repercussions on the patient and their quality of life. It also affects the health system, as these people would require many hospital appointments,”
“Every 20 seconds a limb is lost in the world. However, around 80% of ulcerations can actually be prevented”.
Parliamentary Action
This and other worrying trends has led the opposition Nationalist Party of Malta to call for the setting up of a parliamentary working group to focus more action on tackling diabetes and its impact on the population.
PDGN European Chair, Claudette Buttigieg MP and Ian Vassallo MP said diabetes was described as a national priority when a strategy to tackle it was unveiled by Health Minister Chris Fearne MP in 2016. But the strategy expired two years ago, without any tangible action having been taken.
The MPs explained that diabetes is one of the most common conditions in Malta, with the country having one of the biggest per capita rates in Europe. They observed that Malta still lacks a national register of diabetes patients and no system to monitor incidence and prevalence.
They called on the government to give this condition the importance it deserved.
Advocacy Action: Do you know the numbers of amputations taking place in your country due to diabetes? What preventative polices are in place, or could be supported to reduce the number of these life changing interventions? Is your government giving diabetes the importance it deserves?