23rd edition – Friday, January 16, 2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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NICE developing new diabetes guidance

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Ninjabetic – the language of diabetes

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Poor state of diabetes care 'costing lives and money'

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More funds and resources needed for diabetes care

DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO TELL?

GET IN TOUCH

Email your diabetes stories to editor Oliver Jelley.

Join the expanding diabetes community on Twitter and follow us for the latest diabetes news updates at @DiabetesTimes.

To clarify – Dr Partha Kar’s latest blog post

You must have noticed it, haven't you? The words that were uttered in black humour, with a wink and a dash, words which were said in closed quarters at the end of a busy day, words which came forth over the nth pint... it's all quite openly spoken now. It's the patient... or rather the fault of them. Their fault they waste doctors' time, nurses time, ED time... inappropriate, awful, wastage of precious time of healthcare professionals. Trivial issues brought forward..how dare they ask for help.

And it opens a Pandora's box, doesn't it? We have all seen the patients we deem are unsuitable, the drunks we have encountered in ED queues, the ones who forgot their prescriptions and needed better planning – but in a system which treats millions – the question has to be what proportion of that are what we term as "time wasters". We ask, no, demand that the public should look after their health better and bother us less, yet how many times have we followed the mantra of regular exercise and the healthy diet we are so quick to profess? As a Diabetologist, I look at HCPs everywhere and can only say this...practicing what you preach ain't easy, so why be so quick with the judgements? To read more, click here.

New Type 2 education programme launched

A new Type 2 diabetes structured education programme is now available to be commissioned by health providers and bought directly by people with the condition.

The ‘Diabetes Manual Programme’ from Successful Diabetes is now available in the UK under license from Warwick University and in association with Professor Jackie Sturt, Kings College London. To read more, click here.

NICE developing new diabetes guidance

Health watchdog NICE is developing five pieces of guidance relating to diabetes over the next two years.

Each guidance will focus on a different element of the care pathway, because of the breadth of advice that will be covered, it will not be possible for one centre to develop all five pieces of guidance. They include:

Diabetes in children and young people (Type 1 and 2)
Diabetes in pregnancy
Type 1 diabetes in adults
Type 2 diabetes in adults
Diabetic foot problems

To read more, click here.

Ninjabetic – the language of diabetes

I’ve been thinking recently about the way that I talk about diabetes and the way that others communicate with me and also about me. Language is a very powerful tool used in discussions about diabetes, and a person’s choice of words can greatly impact on a patient and the way that they manage their condition.

To read more, click here.

Poor state of diabetes care 'costing lives and money'

The poor state of diabetes healthcare in England is leading to avoidable deaths, record rates of complications and huge costs to the NHS, according to a report published this week by Diabetes UK.

The charity’s annual State of the Nation report shows there has been very little overall improvement in diabetes healthcare in the past year, with 40 per cent of people with diabetes still not getting the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended checks that they need to manage their condition. Some aspects of care have got worse, such as the numbers of people with Type 1 diabetes receiving their annual checks, which has reduced from 43 to 41 per cent.

To read more, click here.

More funds and resources needed for diabetes care

More funds and resources are needed to improve the care and treatment of people with diabetes, according to a charity responding to Diabetes UK’s annual State of the Nation report.

Published this week, the report concluded that the poor state of diabetes healthcare in England was leading to avoidable deaths, record rates of complications and huge costs to the NHS.

Jenny Hirst MBE, Co-Chair of the InDependent Diabetes Trust, said: “More resources are needed and these do cost money. At the same time there is a need for Public Health England to develop and ensure implementation of a prevention programme for Type 2 diabetes." To read more, click here.

DIABETES DIGEST

Last chance to submit or review diabetes apps

People have until early next month to enter a competition to discover apps to improve diabetes care.

Funded by the Intellectual Property Office and run by Plymouth University in collaboration with Diabetes UK, the Health App Challenge is seeking to help improve technology’s ability to enhance healthcare outcomes.

The deadline for submitting a mock-up or app is Monday, February 2, and people have until Monday, March 16, to review them. To read more, click here.

Event to highlight successes in diabetes hospital care

The latest innovations and successes from the diabetes inpatient community will be showcased at a conference.

The ‘4th National Diabetes Inpatient Conference: Innovations in Diabetes Inpatient Care’ takes place on January 28 at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) in London. To read more, click here.

More specialist emotional support needed for people with diabetes

People with diabetes are being left to struggle with the emotional impact of the condition and too few are offered professional psychological support, according to a new survey by Diabetes UK.

The survey of 3,845 people with diabetes found that more than two thirds (68 per cent) of people who had needed psychological support said they had not received it. To read more, click here.

People with Type 1 diabetes in Scotland living longer

The life expectancy of people in Scotland with Type 1 diabetes has improved compared to previous research, according to a major study. To read more, click here.

Sally Traffic joins Type 1 diabetes charity car rally

Sally Traffic – well known to listeners of BBC Radio 2 for her travel reports – will be joining type 1 diabetes charity JDRF this spring to launch a car rally across Europe.

To read more, click here.