Diabetes care "improving"

GPs and local primary care trusts are responding to the call to set up specialist services for people with diabetes, a report said yesterday.

Ministers claimed significant evidence of improvements in services for people with diabetes some two years after the launch of a National Service Framework for the condition.

The claim was largely backed by campaigners.

A report on progress, Improving Diabetic Services, cites Sheffield where six practices have teamed up to establish specialist services.

The report praises the Nichols Town surgery of Southampton where "tailor-made" care is offered to an ethnically mixed group of patients.

Health minister Rosie Winterton (pictured) visited a diabetes centre in Hillingdon, Diabeticare, to launch the report.

She said: "This is an exciting time for diabetes services in England. The first two years of this ten-year programme have focussed on getting the systems and support right, and I hope that the next few years will bring about real and sustainable improvements in patient care.

"Good diabetes care is about developing tailor made care to meet individual needs. We are placing greater focus on patient involvement and self-management which means we need a considerable change in the way services are delivered. Patients are joining clinicians and managers to redesign care services."

Douglas Smallwood, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said care of diabetes was undergoing a "major overhaul".

He said: "This report shows that real progress is being made in facing up to the problems and tackling the root causes. Some people with diabetes are starting to see real improvements in the service they are provided.

"The challenge for the NHS is to now ensure that everyone with the condition has equal access to the care and support that can offer them a full and healthy life."

Bev Bookless, director of the National Diabetes Support Team, said: "The many stories of how health professionals and people with diabetes working together are radically improving how services are structured and delivered are inspirational.

"However the real test is whether these structural changes feed through into improved care for individual people with diabetes and their carers."