Thank you very much.
Many people with diabetes are at high risk for COVID-19, but as we are learning more about this new virus, research is showing that while having diabetes doesn't make someone more likely to catch COVID-19, it makes the consequences more serious if they do.
Early research shows that people with diabetes are approximately twice as likely to require hospitalization and intensive care as those without and about three times as likely to die of COVID-19. Because of this many Canadians with diabetes are very worried about the pandemic.
Like diabetes, COVID-19 is a disease that exploits health inequities. The more socially and economically disadvantaged a person is, the more likely they are to suffer from diseases like diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure which put them at greater risk to COVID-19.
People in poorer socio-economic circumstances can also be more exposed to infection. They may be unable to self-isolate due to insecure labour conditions which do not allow for teleworking or provide statutory sick leave. They are more likely to experience overcrowding in their living arrangements. The pandemic has brought out in even sharper relief the critical necessity of addressing underlying health inequities to preserve the health of our citizens.
COVID-19 has also highlighted serious gaps in data and challenges that can exist due to unintegrated health systems across provinces and territories. The critical necessity of making evidence-informed decisions about allocating limited health care resources and implementing health policies during the pandemic has highlighted the lack of health data sharing and systems integration that has plagued our health care system for years.
A lack of easy ways to share best practices and harmonize health care across provinces and territories has contributed to the burdens of COVID-19 being shared unequally among different provinces and their citizens. Conversely, the tremendous progress that is being made to close these gaps in response to the pandemic shows how collective will and a sense of urgency can produce real results in record time.
Provinces are leveraging and sharing medical information as never before and planning to use apps and digital tools to share and track chronic medical conditions. From coast to coast doctors are offering virtual consultations that would have been considered impossible just two months ago, and which are a key tool in preventing the overload of our emergency health care system.
Practices such as these—leveraging virtual care, establishing and using medical data repositories and registries, optimizing and continuously improving patient care pathways—are all key tenets of diabetes 360º, Diabetes Canada's nationwide strategy, which this committee has recommended for implementation.
Developed by 120 stakeholders over more than a year of rigorous effort, diabetes 360º contains evidence-based recommendations aimed at improving patient outcomes. It will enhance the prevention, screening and management of diabetes to achieve better health for Canadians. It will reduce unnecessary health care spending by billions of dollars, improve the lives of millions of Canadians and protect Canada's productivity and competitiveness.
We believe, in light of the pandemic, that diabetes 360º is more relevant than ever. It's implementation will support public health and deliver on the need for collaborative, value-based health care models and a multidisciplinary comprehensive approach to health care. The billions of dollars in savings that will be realized by our health care system when we implement diabetes 360º is an example of the effective use of public dollars to combat chronic disease.
Given that diabetes is one of the most empirically measurable chronic diseases, implementation of a comprehensive strategy to prevent, diagnose and treat diabetes, based on data on patient health outcomes, can serve as a useful test case for managing other chronic diseases.
With the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin in Canada in 1921 being right around the corner, we urge governments to embrace diabetes 360º now.
In summary, Diabetes Canada, like all Canadians, is pivoting rapidly to adapt to the new reality we are faced with, given the COVID-19 pandemic. We are serving people with diabetes now more than ever and will continue to strive to do so even with limited resources, but we, along with other health charities, need additional support from the federal government to do so. A key measure that the federal government should take in response to the pandemic and in anticipation of 2021 is to implement a nationwide strategy to address diabetes and the burden of chronic disease in Canada in general.
Diabetes Canada stands ready to collaborate with governments to end the diabetes epidemic once and for all.
Thank you.