Laura Osman, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has introduced legislation in the Commons for a new “national framework” to improve access to diabetes treatment and prevention in Canada.
Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu had called for the creation of this new “national framework on diabetes”, in a private member’s bill which passed the Commons in June 2021.
At the time, Diabetes Canada was calling for some kind of national strategy to fight the growing diabetes epidemic.
Diabetes prevents the natural production or use of insulin in the body, which reduces the regulation of glucose in the blood. It is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and lower limb amputation.
In her bill, MP Sidhu said the new framework should set out the training, education and guidance that healthcare workers need to promote the treatment and prevention of diabetes, including “guidelines of clinical practice”.
The law also states that the government will have to ensure that the Canada Revenue Agency administers the disability tax credit “in a fair manner”, to help “the greatest number of people with diabetes possible”. .
Diabetes patient advocates have for years bemoaned the lack of federal vision regarding this disease. A federal strategy had been set out in 1999, but it was then integrated, in 2005, into a broader chronic disease strategy.
“The longer we delay coordinated efforts with targeted results, the more the prevalence of diabetes will increase and the more tragic complications Canadians will experience,” said Dr. Jan Hux, then president of Diabetes Canada, in 2019.
Since then, the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes in Canada has increased by 6.5%, according to statistics published by Diabetes Canada, and the annual cost of treating the disease is now $30 billion.
As of March, 5.7 million Canadians had diagnosed diabetes and another five million had prediabetes, a condition that, if left untreated, can progress to type 2 diabetes.