As part of the series of publications “NCD stories from the field”, WHO/Europe recently released a case study, “Georgia – training initiatives on tackling diabetes”.
The document describes the implementation of the project by the Georgian Government, supported by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and co-funded by the Government of Denmark, to improve access of people living with diabetes to high-quality care from their local primary healthcare (PHC).
In Georgia, funding for primary healthcare is among the lowest in the WHO European Region, and out-of-pocket payments are significant. Moreover, care for people living with diabetes varies widely across the country and there is no standardised documentation to record patient information.
With non-communicable diseases (NCDs) accounting for 94% of all deaths in the country, the project focused on raising the quality of care for people living with diabetes by working with the PHC staff of eight clinics on: establishing pathways, protocols and guidelines; developing curricula; identifying and monitoring indicators of progress; and creating multidisciplinary courses on patient education using a people-centred approach.
Overall, the project’s training activities on clinical records review, guidelines implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and the development of patient referral pathways and training modules for doctors, nurses, and clinical leads contributed to advancements in clinical evaluation, performance appraisal, patient education and the promotion of multidisciplinary teams. The project also demonstrated that “PHC professionals are keen to use their own data to improve quality of care, working with more standardised procedures and in a more integrated way.” [I]
To read WHO/Europe’s publication “Georgia – training initiatives on tackling diabetes: NCD stories from the field” click here.
[I] WHO/EUROPE. Georgia – training initiatives on tackling diabetes: NCD stories from the field (2022) https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/diabetes/publications/2022/georgia-training-initiatives-on-tackling-diabetes-ncd-stories-from-the-field-2022
