New hope as authorities look at free pumps for diabetics

The health authorities are evaluating the cost effectiveness of providing diabetics with free insulin pumps that offer an alternative to daily injections.

The Malta Diabetes Association recently pledged to lobby the government to provide free pumps that would improve the quality of life for diabetics.

The relatively new technology consists of a small, computerised device attached to the abdomen area that releases insulin into the body. The pump helps control the disease and avoid complications that result in huge healthcare costs for the government, the association said.

Although pumps are available privately in Malta, getting one is complicated because the structures are still lacking.

The Health Ministry agreed that insulin pumps delivered insulin more accurately than injections and eliminated the need for individual injections.

However, it said not all patients were suitable for these pumps as to use these devices they needed to be well motivated and required regular glucose monitoring and training. “The ministry will be undertaking an evaluation of the utilisation and cost-effectiveness of these pumps,” the spokesman said.

He added that the government would increase the number of syringes given to diabetics free of charge to one per day from the current 10 per month, while the 35-year age limit for glucose testing strips would no longer apply

Diabetes affects about 246 million people worldwide. It is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

In Malta, the incidence of diabetes is very high at 11.8 per cent of the population compared with 8.8 per cent in Italy, 9.5 per cent in Greece and 7.8 per cent in the UK.

The incidence of diabetes is on the increase worldwide with Type 2 diabetes, linked to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles, making up some 90 per cent of cases.

A European health survey released last year showed that 58 per cent of Maltese adults are obese or overweight.