TORONTO - More than 1,300 Ontario residents with Type-1 diabetes will have access to free insulin pumps under a new provincial initiative.
Health Minister David Caplan has announced a $741-million, four-year plan to better manage, prevent and treat diabetes. It includes an online registry to help patients better manage their condition and to help health care providers more easily check patient records.
In addition to the registry, which is to come online next spring, the plan will include campaigns to raise awareness of diabetes risk factors.
The number of Ontario residents with diabetes has increased by 69 per cent over the last 10 years and is projected to grow from 900,000 to 1.2 million by 2010.
Treatment for diabetes and related conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease currently cost Ontario over $5 billion each year.
"Our plan will help Ontarians living with diabetes get better access to the care they need, when and where they need it," said Caplan.
"The diabetes registry will change the way this disease is managed, ultimately saving more lives and easing hospital wait times."
A diabetes patient costs Ontario's health care system over $3,000 in the first year of treatment, but that figure rises to over $5,000 if the patient has complications.
