Bexley Diabetes - improving your services
Bexley Care Trust has undertaken an ambitious project to deliver high quality care for people with diabetes in Bexley.
There are about 9,500 people with diabetes in the Bexley area. Applying national trends, we can estimate that ninety percent have type 2 diabetes and the remainder type 1.
Type 1 is where the pancreas no longer produces any insulin, Type 2 is a progression from the body not being able to use the insulin produced to eventually not producing any at all. A significant challenge for everyone is that the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in its early stages, can be difficult to detect.
Specialisist Diabetes Care in Bexley
Diabetes care in Bexley is based on the application of the Healthcare for London model which was developed with extensive patient involvement, including that from our local Diabetes UK patient group. Added to this, we have applied other initiatives taken from best practice across the UK.
Our underlying principles are:
- The patient is at the centre of everything we do
- We shall apply evidence-based best practice
- We will deliver care where patients want it and where it
is clinically and economically best to offer it - We shall measure our impact through patient feedback
- We will involve care providers in the work we do.
We are fortunate in Bexley to have a well organised and highly committed group of healthcare professionals working in the community. Considerable additional training and support has been made available to ensure the highest standards of care are achieved.
All GP practices have been independently audited and development plans put in place to achieve further improvement. Together with this, we have diabetes specialists from our local hospitals providing clinical support.
We also benefit from an exceptionally strong local Diabetes UK support group who have recently established a youth group too.
During 2010, Bexley Diabetes will introduce the following service improvements:
- Specialist diabetes community clinics in the community
The aim is to take care outside of a hospital setting, improve access to specialists and bring care closer to you
- GP specialist care
With the recent additional investment made to the care offered in GP practices to those with diabetes, we can now offer care locally for a range of services - rather than in hospitals. Any patient care transferred to a GP will only be done where it is
clinically the best option, approved by a consultant specialist and, with the agreed to by the patient
- Launch of the Year of Care initiative
This was an idea hat was developed under a pilot by Diabetes UK, NHS Diabetes, the Department of Health and the Health Foundation. What this will mean is every person with a long term condition should have a jointly agreed care plan and the Year of Care is a programme that enables this to be put into practice. Participants can look forward to far greater involvement in personalising the care that they receive to ensure it is more tailored to their individuals needs and goals.
- Listening to your feedback
We shall be measuring the impact of what we do. Our local Diabetes UK patient group will provide us with valued and independent patient feedback to ensure that we get absolutely clear and unbiased feedback about our services so that we can continue to improve them.
- New Bexley Diabetes website
A new specialist website will be created where you will find access to all the local services in Bexley for people with diabetes as well as helpful advice, structured education, what to do in an emergency and much more.
These are just an outline of the work we are developing to improve the lives of local people with diabetes and their carers.
For further information on any services please contact the Bexley Diabetes Team
