How do you get to a medical appointment 40 minutes away without a car? How do you make your specialist visit in six months if you don’t know your work schedule? What if you’ve already had negative experiences in a hospital setting, and you don’t feel safe going back?
Individuals facing homelessness, poverty, recent immigration and more must overcome these barriers when accessing regular diabetes care — and it’s no small problem. 3.7 million people in Canada live with diagnosed diabetes, and for marginalized populations, the risk of going undiagnosed or dealing with complications only increases (for individuals facing homelessness, for example, the risk of hospitalization increases five-fold).
Dr. David Campbell, professor at the University of Calgary’s Department of Medicine and a diabetes specialist, and his team, have partnered with Telus Health for Good and The Alex Mobile Care Clinic on a two-year pilot program operating a mobile diagnosis and treatment initiative.
“The Diabetes Mobile Clinic is designed to address a lot of those issues and systemic barriers that exist,” says Dr. Campbell.
Patients can skip the five or more appointments they’d typically be referred for at a family doctor, and instead have one visit which includes seeing Dr. Campbell, receiving eye testing, foot care and foot assessments, a mobile lab for blood sugar testing and urine testing for kidney function and a diabetes educator.
The clinic also schedules follow-ups when needed, and assists patients with accessing insurance for items like insulin. “We work with industry partners who’ve made donations of medications and testing supplies to make them available to our patients as they need them,” says Dr. Campbell. “We’re quite fortunate to have some good partnerships that make that possible.”
You can find the Diabetes Mobile Clinic outside The Alex Community Health Centre every Tuesday and Wednesday.
