Workers Blacktown club hosts diabetes detecting tests

They might go to play the pokies and enjoy a schooner but many patrons of a western Sydney club are also discovering they have diabetes after participating in a pilot health program.

They might not plan on getting a health check-up when they file through the lobby of Workers Blacktown club, but members of the giant venue are taking advantage of a pilot program to detect diabetes.

The club’s Workers Lifestyle Group, Western Sydney Diabetes and pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk have teamed up to address the increasing rate of type 2 diabetes in western Sydney, where 13 per cent of the adult population have the disease.

On every second Tuesday afternoon for four hours at the club, patrons can receive a free finger prick test to see if they diabetes or are at risk of developing it.

Workers has 55,000 members across three clubs, with the bulk of them in the Blacktown CBD venue where the pilot is taking place until 500 people are tested.

Alarmingly, Western Sydney Diabetes prevention program manager Janine Dawson revealed that since the program started in January and 250 tests had been carried out, 50 per cent of people with pre-diabetes were unaware they were at risk.

More than half of the participants entering the club have HbA1c (blood glucose levels) suggestive of pre-diabetes and diabetes.

“We want people who may not have got to their doctor for a while, and to be able to intervene to make them aware of what their risks are to promote and encourage lifestyle changes but also to get them to their doctor,’’ Mrs Dawson said.

Blacktown Workers Club is in the first year of a program that has allocated $500,000 over five years to address diabetes.

Workers Lifestyle Group chief executive Morgan Stewart. said just as the club was committed to an anti domestic-violence program, its members’ wellbeing led to the program for diabetes, “which is a silent epidemic in Blacktown and western Sydney”.

“For us it’s about how can we change a conversation for our community and use the megaphone of the club, so to speak, to talk to 55,000 people,’’ he said.

“We’ve got a lot of members, a lot of people from different backgrounds.

He said the convenience of having the test in the lobby meant guests and members did not overthink it.

The foot traffic filing through the club is getting patrons to have a convenient health check, which they might have not got around to by making an appointment at the doctor.

“This is great, it’s so easy for you,’’ club member Brenda Simms, who has had diabetes for 31 years, said.

“Within three minutes you get results of what your blood is – normally you have to wait at the doctor and it’s a couple of days. Here it’s all over and everything goes back to your doctor in one day and it’s great for the club to have this.’’

Mrs Simms, who used the pop-up clinic to check her glucose levels, wants patrons to see the opportunity the tests can have so they can regain control of their health.

The Marayong 79 year old dropped 33kg from 2015 to 2018 and now weighs 50kg after participating in another club health program aimed at diabetics.

When she was first treated for diabetes at Blacktown Hospital she was shocked to see fellow patients with amputated limbs and black feet after they failed to manage their diabetes.

“You can lose your feet, you can lose your fingers, you can lose your eyesight without getting it all checked and that’s one of the things that frightened me when I found out,’’ she said.

“I said ‘that’s it, I’m never ever going to look like that’.’’

If patients test positive, nurses send letters to their GPs and diet and exercise recommendations.

Diabetes in western Sydney has long been a chronic health problem and Mrs Dawson said it was getting worse. It is higher in lower socio-economic areas and among the South Asian population.

Along with the testing, the club’s bistro introduced healthier options when a refurbishment was completed in November. The traditional favourites are still there but the more health-conscious will also find options such as vegan schnitzel.

Cooking with trans fat oils was ditched for healthy oils a decade ago.