The Diabetes Specialist Service
At the Group Meeting in November 2009 Dr. Adrian Scott, Consultant Physician & Clinical Lead for Diabetes, gave a talk on
The Diabetes Specialist Service - achievements & future plans
He set the scene by saying that there are now over 23,000 people with diabetes in Sheffield.
He went on to talk about the Diabetes Specialist Service:
In conjunction with NHS Sheffield (Primary Care Trust) and the Central Consortium (27 practices) which has made diabetes a priority, work is being done to transfer care from hospital to the community and to provide care closer to home.
A Community Diabetes Specialist team was set up in April '09 and 450 people have been referred to it to date. 100 people with diabetes have been transferred from hospital clinics to their general practitioners. However,over the same period, there had been an increase in referrals to secondary care. Dr. Scott stated that all practices in Sheffield have their diabetes services monitored by the Primary Care Trust (PCT).
There has been increasing concern about people with diabetes admitted to hospital in emergencies (eg with diabetes out of control) into the care of non-specialist physicians. From the beginning of December anyone admitted in an emergency with diabetes will be placed directly in the care of a consultant diabetes physician.
People with diabetes in hospital with other problems under other consultants will be better cared for when the THINK GLUCOSE campaign gets under way. This is a national campaign based on ward staff training and Dr. Scott has found some outside funding for it. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals are also providing six months start up funding on the condition that improvements are demonstrated. The main issues for people with diabetes who are in-patients are hypos, insulin management, blood glucose monitoring and continuing with their own diabetes self-management.
Dr. Scott also discussed the continuing liaison between the specialist service with the Ambulance Authority following emergency calls and treatment at home.(eg elderly people living alone who have hypos). The scheme is working most of the time where ambulance personnel inform the Diabetes Specialist Nurses to follow up an emergency call out.
Dr. Scott briefly discussed the proposed electronic Summary of Health, which will be shared between clinicians with permission from patients.
A development plan for the NGH Diabetes Centre is being discussed.