Diabetes services and care provision

D iabetes mellitus are rising rapidly in worldwide despite advancing diabetic modalities and services. This is depicted by a recent study were conducted to improve presented services for diabetic children (1). In this study questionnaire were provided and sent to more than 400 clinicians that took care of diabetic children are less than 16 years old and young diabetic individuals in the United Kingdom. 244 clinicians who took care of 17 thousand diabetic children, completed and sent back questionnaire. Of 244 consultants, around 77% were seen taking a special interest in diabetes mellitus and 90% were dealing with children in a designated diabetic clinic. A specialist nurse was visited 92% of these clinics (more than 40% were untrained to care for children), also a pediatric dietician was visited 64% of these clinics. They found, 88% measured glycated haemoglobin routinely at their clinics, 87% performed retinopathy screening and finally 66% measured microalbuminuria. Non-specialist clinics met significantly fewer of the recommendations of good practice described by Diabetes UK. The survey reveals improvements in services provided for children with diabetes, however serious deficiencies remain. Mentioned services confirm the need for more consultant pediatricians to receive specialist training. Similarly, a cross sectional study was conducted between April 2008 and January 2009 (2) with to evaluate the perceptions of general practitioners and secondary care health professionals regarding the role of general practitioners in providing preconception care to women with diabetes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 women having type 1 or type 2 diabetes, belonging to varied ethnic backgrounds who were attended a London teaching hospital or the general practitioners in charge in the hospital catchment area. Seven secondary health professionals associated and eight general practitioners serving the catchment area of the hospital were also parts of the sample of this study. Results of this study indicates, a difference in perceptions of general practitioners and secondary health carers regarding the number of women demanding preconception care. Likewise, a retrospective cohort study was carried-out to observe the management of diabetes between 2001 and 2007 in the United Kingdom and to assess whether changes in the quality of care reflect existing temporal trends or is a direct result of the implementation of the quality and outcomes framework. Type 1 and 2 diabetic patients were recruited from 147 general practices having continuous data over a 10-year period (from 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2007) (3). The incidence …