Diabetes treatment and care

As part of the National Diabetes Treatment and Care Programme NHS England have invested several million pounds to improve the treatment and care of people with diabetes

Projects include:

This includes:

  • increasing uptake of structured education
  • improving achievement of the NICE recommended treatment targets (HbA1c, blood pressure and cholesterol for adults, HbA1c only for children)
  • reducing the number of amputations by improving access to multi-disciplinary foot care teams
  • reducing lengths of hospital stays by improving access to specialist inpatient support.

The network supports transformation across the region through the projects and transformation steering groups at a regional and local level, whilst also providing Quality Assurance.

Structured education

The network’s role is to support the development, delivery and uptake of diabetes education.

The network is involved in many aspects of providing and developing structured education for patients. We help monitor uptake rates through more accurate and reliable recording of SE GP systems.

We have  implemented alternative solutions which will provide greater scope for patients to receive and engage with diabetes by supporting development and implementing digital solutions to patients and the public. We’ve looked at what patient education is provided upon Diabetes diagnosis and provide recommendations to improve the service given to patients.

We are supporting the implementation across the region of digital platforms.

Including the nationally commissioned:

which give patients all the educational materials they need

NICE treatment targets

The network support improved achievement of the three NICE-recommended diabetes treatment targets.

Improve diabetes in-patient nurse outcomes

The network helps to improve inpatient diabetes treatment.

Footcare

The aim of the network is to improve footcare outcomes and reduce amputation rates. A cornerstone of the network has been to provide access to good practice, examples being an agreed footcare pathway ‘blueprint’ aimed at reduced amputation rates. We identified variations in footcare outcomes in the region and to understand the challenges and identify good practice across points in the pathway and determine factors that might contribute to increased amputation rates we implemented this agreed NWC footcare blueprint pathway.

We are also actively involved in trialing new and innovative ways to reduce the incidence of foot ulcers occurring. This it is hoped will lead to a better patient experience and ultimately reducing amputations.