P.A. Health Region Denies North Diabetes Funds

P.A. Health Region Denies North Diabetes Funds

Friday, September 26, 2003 at 13:57

 

 

 

The Prince Albert Regional Health Authority is denying a request for more funding of diabetes prevention programs in the province’s North.

 

Cases of diabetes are three times higher in Northern Saskatchewan than they are in the rest of the mainstream population.

 

That, and a few other alarming statistics, are what Jan Kroll of the Prince Albert Grand Council is

hoping to change.

 

Kroll recently approached the P.A. Health Authority for continued funding of diabetes prevention programs, many of which are based in isolated communities.

 

She says without educators and dieticians working first-hand with aboriginal youth, the problem will continue to grow.

 

The diabetes prevention campaign first began in 1995 and Kroll says since that time a lot of progress has been made.

 

However, the health authority has indicated more funding likely will not be coming.

 

In a letter to the health board, CEO Gren Smith-Windsor indicated more money was denied because of the region’s poor economic position and because a number of the communities served fall outside the boundaries of the P.A. Health Authority.