Health Services and Policy
IDF2022-1158 Transition in Diabetes Mellitus Management Among Palestine Refugees During COVID-19; UNRWA’s Jordan Experience

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2023.110498Get rights and content

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Background

UNRWA healthcare system has made emergent changes to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis including diabetes care, as patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are among the high-risk group affected during the pandemic.

Aim

This study aims to highlight the changes in DM protocol during the pandemic and the impact of the transition on the quality of care.

Method

UNRWA’s health centers were closed in Jordan due to the lockdown conducted by the government of Jordan from 17th March 2020 until 5th May 2020. Based on this, the UNRWA health program adapted to its management protocols focusing on emergency and high-risk group patients including DM Responses include but are not limited to; home delivery for life-saving medications, telemedicine and hotlines, triage system, and community engagement.

Two months later, medications continued to be delivered to

Results

Jordan field records showed that 78,827 patients, including DM patients, received 2- month’s supply of their medications during the lockdown, while 8,321 calls received for remote medical consultations 1638out of them were Non-communicable disease (NCD) related.

As a result of prioritizing primary health services for DM patients rate of late complications showed that it was 9.6 in 2019 and 7.1 in 2020.

In addition, the percentage of DM patients under control per defined criteria was 30.9% in 2019

Conclusion

Despite the challenges in Jordan field as well as other fields operated by UNRWA, NCD program succeeded in maintaining essential services including those related to DM patients. The adaptation on the management protocol based on the epidemiological situation was a basic pillar in continuously providing quality health services for DM patients despite COVID-19 crisis.

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