Personal plans ‘could improve care for diabetes patients’

Almost two-thirds of people with diabetes do not have a personal care plan to help them manage their condition, research suggests.

The charity Diabetes UK said there was “strong evidence” that having a plan improves health and cuts the chances of serious complications such as kidney failure, amputation, stroke and heart attack.

Its poll of more than 1,600 people with diabetes found 65 per cent had no care plan in place, as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

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This is despite the fact that treating complications accounts for 80 per cent of the £10bn the NHS spends every year on diabetes, it said.

Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: “We know that personalised care planning helps put people with diabetes in the driving seat and, crucially, gives them a better chance of a long and healthy life.

“After all, healthcare professionals might only spend a few hours a year with someone with diabetes, while it is the person who has the condition who has to manage it the rest of the time.

“Personalised care planning is not about a person having a sheet on the file at their GP surgery that says ‘personal care plan’. “To be effective, it must not be a tick-box exercise. It is about giving the person with diabetes the opportunity to work together with their healthcare team to be more informed, more vocal and play a bigger role in their care.

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“For example, they should come prepared with the results of their tests and be ready to have a meaningful conversation about what needs to be done next.

“This might result in attending structured education, trying new medication or being referred to a slimming club. It’s about giving people the right information and ability to access help when they need it.

“We need to get the message across to the NHS that if people with diabetes do not have personalised care planning at the moment, then this needs to be rectified urgently and in some cases this will need to be built into the development of diabetes services.”

There are around 3.8 million people in the UK with diabetes.

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This includes three million people living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and around 850,000 more who have Type 2 but do not know it.

As many as seven million people are also at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity.

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