THE Davao City Health Office (CHO) urged diabetic patients to undergo free test for diabetic retinopathy to avoid blindness.
Davao City Health Officer doctor Josephine Villafuerte, in an interview with VoxPop last Wednesday, June 7, said part of their office's program is to bring the diabetic patients to the ophthalmologist for them to be checked if they have signs of such condition.
"If you have diabetic retinopathy, you need to be cautious because you might go blind, kasi usually it is a complication of long standing diabetes," she said.
She added that part of their program is giving referrals to diabetes patients for them to be checked by an ophthalmologist at the Southern Philippine Medical Center (SPMC).
Villafuerte said that they are not limiting the number of patients to be catered in their program.
She added that in the last two Saturdays, they were able to refer 105 patients.
"Kung pwede sana lahat ng diabetic [ang i-cater], kung gusto nila, ipadala namin sila sa SPMC," he said.
"The benefit is going to be theirs because if they are diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy at an early stage, pwede siya ma-prevent nahindi ma-blind," she said.
She added that the program is free but they can also get referrals from any of the health district offices in the city and bring them to SPMC. (KVC)