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An email pinged into the inbox today..."Have they got to you?" was the heading. With intrigue I opened it to a query why my blogs had stopped — had to assure that it was down to something more basic... my parents were visiting — and simply put — was just enjoying some family time — and as ever, was warm, fuzzy and simply... lovely.

It did make me think though about the culture we live in — where in spite of multiple conferences, hashtags, 'Francis', self styled defenders of patients safety etc etc... such an email does come along. Either way, to reassure, nope, no ones muzzled me — and to be fair, none in management have never ever asked me to tone things down or stop writing.

So to this blog... and I must talk about Pete Deveson — and I must say the fella did make me sit up and listen. It was at the BMJ Big Debate — and in the middle of all the fun and laughter, the jokes and banter, Pete talked about 'Learned Helplessness'. Delivered with panache, fun but with a striking message underneath, he talked about how many had forgotten the art of speaking up when needed. Many a times, I am told how its about the 'Bigger Picture'... how our leaders can't say things openly because the bigger picture is more important — and I must admit I am starting to struggle with that. What does that actually mean — a bigger picture for the person themselves or a bigger picture for healthcare?

Keith Willett recently spoke at  Kings Fund conference — Director for Acute Episodes of Care or the Emergency Czar in old parlance. I watched on Twitter as he spoke about the challenges, spoke about recruitment, spoke about working differently... and I waited... and waited... waited for this clever intelligent leader to utter one word about recruitment crisis, low morale, junior doctors... but nothing came along. What does that mean... he thinks the emergency care crisis is solvable without improving morale or tackling the recruitment issue... or is there a bigger issue at hand I am not aware of?

To read more, click here.

The opinions and experiences of more than 30,000 people with diabetes in Northamptonshire are being called upon in a bid to improve services in the county.

NHS Nene Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS Corby CCG, who plan and pay for most healthcare services in Northamptonshire, are seeking feedback. To read more, click here.

A new conference aiming to “empower patients to manage their own care” takes place next week with a host of leading speakers lined up.

The first Diabetes Professional Care conference will be held at The Barbican Exhibition Centre on November 11 and 12. To read more, click here.

The iconic Coca-Cola truck is not welcome in Leicester during its annual Christmas tour, according to a local MP.

Labour's Keith Vaz, who has type 2 diabetes, said the promotional tour was a "blatant marketing campaign for high sugar products". To read more, click here.

An international drive to raise awareness of diabetes is underway and will continue throughout the month of November.

Diabetes Awareness Month in the UK comes on the back of World Diabetes Day, which takes place annually on November 14 and is led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). To read more, click here.

A charity is ​calling for social media users around the world to submit photos as part of its campaign to mark World Diabetes Day (WDD).

The #insulin4all campaign, led by T1International and a charity partnership group called​ ​The Access Alliance, is calling for photo submissions of people holding a sign with this year’s slogan, “we are the world in World Diabetes Day”. To read more, click here.

The first symposium in Europe to focus on silent occlusions and infusion set failures has taken place.

The Optimising Insulin Pump Therapy event was held ahead of the 51st European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting on September, 14, 2015 in Stockholm. To read more, click here.

Clinic appointments for people with diabetic macular oedema (DMO), could be nearly halved by using ranibizumab (Lucentis) in a treat-and-extend (T&E) regimen, according to new research.

DMO is one of the leading causes of visual impairment in the UK – when compared to a PRN regimen of the same drug.

To read more, click here.

The chair of a public spending watchdog has said she is “deeply disappointed” that the Department of Health has made little progress in helping people with diabetes since 2012.

To read more, click here.