Rant about diabetes review/ GP surgery madness

[julieclarke]

My diabetes reviews are done in two parts. Part one, urine test, blood pressure, foot checks, weight and blood taking with a health care assistant. I then attend a week or so later for part two with GP, nurse or pharmacist to discuss the results of the tests taken and any need to alter medication. I wonder if your surgery works that way too and you’ll have to book the second appt once you’ve had the first appt.
Having said all that it is remiss that you’re only being seen for your first ever appt two months after diagnosis.

Edit for typo

Have you rang them to book appointment

 

[Annb]

PPGs linvolve patients and practice staff (usually a member of the management team or a GP) meeting regularly to discuss service improvements and things like when practices are considering changes or introducing new systems, they get feedback from the PPG on how these changes can be managed better for patients/Service delivery. Its an opportunity for patients to have a voice and help shape improvements.

Never heard of a PPG but I just looked it up to find one near us. The nearest is on the Isle of Harris, which can be reached by road from the Isle of Lewis, if you have a car and a few hours to spare. Not at all sure that our Stornoway practices have anything to do with them.

 

[Eric Anderson]

If you sign up to and enrol on mydiabetesmyway you can get your results at the same time as your surgery do. You can also see your chats and set your goals. A very good tool.

 

[grantg]

If you sign up to and enrol on mydiabetesmyway you can get your results at the same time as your surgery do. You can also see your chats and set your goals. A very good tool.

what exactly is chats? can see goals/results with nhs scotland version of mydiabetesmyway no idea what chats is. interesting that they seem to differ a little bit.
eg:

My Letters
The "my correspondence" section is temporarily unavailable. We aim to restore this section for you to view as soon as possible.

diasend whatever that is been broken since inititally signed up would be good if they kept on the ball, and fixed some of the broken links.

agree with being useful and very handy to get results with speed.

 

[Annb]

what exactly is chats? can see goals/results with nhs scotland version of mydiabetesmyway no idea what chats is. interesting that they seem to differ a little bit.
eg:

diasend whatever that is been broken since inititally signed up would be good if they kept on the ball, and fixed some of the broken links.

agree with being useful and very handy to get results with speed.

Actually, My Diabetes My Way is way behind with results for me. I can only assume that my surgery is slow in putting up results. We are now at the end of 2025 and the last results shown for me are from October 2024. In fact, because of my own lack of tech understanding, I have only just got access to my results from as far back as 2009 and it is quite disturbing that nobody in my local health service had bothered to indicate any of these results to me as anything other that "normal". Normal is not what I would call them with HBA1c varying between 111 and 42. The last shown was October last year and was 48 - up sightly. No idea what it is now - is it still rising, or have I got it back down? I doubt the latter due to other health issues, but I don't actually know. Same issue with gfr and creatinine. My kidneys appear to be in some trouble, but, again - no mention of anything of the kind from my GP or nurse.

 

[grantg]

Actually, My Diabetes My Way is way behind with results for me.

could be worth while sending an email to: [email protected] (scottish only email address for mydiabetesmyway) to ask about results not showing up in a timely manner). all mine been pretty quick being updated same or following day for results sucessfully tested.

I've been waiting patiently on alb/creat ratio's. urine sample been chasing up again today (2 samples been handed in 3 weeks) no results for either.. My last urine sample was handed into the GP Surgery to be checked ACR (marked on sample bottle, foamy urine was reason for test). Have just been told by GP ACR isn't a routine test and it could be that the technician maybe didn't spot ACR was written on it, so they would of perhaps checked for infections rather than the acr test.

If Dr has results for anything listed in https://patient.mydiabetesmyway.scot.nhs.uk/MyLabs.aspx?id=1 it should be inserted into their page. (you'd need to login first).

 

[Annb]

could be worth while sending an email to: [email protected] (scottish only email address for mydiabetesmyway) to ask about results not showing up in a timely manner). all mine been pretty quick being updated same or following day for results sucessfully tested.

I've been waiting patiently on alb/creat ratio's. urine sample been chasing up again today (2 samples been handed in 3 weeks) no results for either.. My last urine sample was handed into the GP Surgery to be checked ACR (marked on sample bottle, foamy urine was reason for test). Have just been told by GP ACR isn't a routine test and it could be that the technician maybe didn't spot ACR was written on it, so they would of perhaps checked for infections rather than the acr test.

If Dr has results for anything listed in https://patient.mydiabetesmyway.scot.nhs.uk/MyLabs.aspx?id=1 it should be inserted into their page. (you'd need to login first).

That is where I was looking for information. My GP must have the information but hasn't uploaded it. Now I am trying to get another log in to access my GP results from their website, but it isn't easy. I did try before but they didn't respond to give me the codes that I needed. I'll have to get back to it this afternoon - I have to go to the dentist now. Why do they have to make it so hard for us APs (Ancient Persons)? I used to be quite good with technology when I was at work, but I'm way out of date now and I can't handle the more modern stuff.

 

[Haining45]

It seems to me that different surgeries have different ideas about "reviews". A few years ago, my surgery started doing reviews like the one the OP describes. Blood was taken during the review, so the results couldn't possibly be discussed at the time. Follow-up consisted of a brief telephone call with a GP, who usually didn't do anything.
However, everything has now changed and I can't believe my luck. I believe I now have what I would call "gold standard" treatment. I receive a reminder every 6 or 12 months to book a blood test and a review. So I have a blood test and take along a urine sample. A couple of weeks later I have a face-to-face review with a diabetic nurse, who is an absolute star - she really knows her stuff. I wasn't surprised to discover that she has an MSc in diabetes management and is on the board of a national diabetes organisation and publishes peer-reviewed articles. She's campaigning for better diabetes care, so I guess she uses the care she offers as a "model".
I haven't seen a GP about diabetes for years. The advantage of the care I now have is that I get longer appointments with the nurse than I would with a GP (nurses are cheaper) and I can discuss all sorts of related problems. For example, I have a history of depression and insomnia (which have an effect on diabetes), so she always asks me about my mood and takes action if needed. I also have problems with a hip (which affect how much exercise I can do), so she arranged X rays and physio. She couldn't prescribe painkillers, so made me an appointment with a GP, who did prescribe them. In other words, I feel as though my diabetes is treated holistically.
I suspect part of the problem is that some GPs don't have a specialist diabetes nurse, to whom they can delegate, so have to organise things differently.
My only fear is that she's so good that she'll be snapped up for promotion somewhere, so I always give her rave feedback.

It's a lottery. I see the practice nurse and I get a letter. I actually got a phone call last week to tell me I had several vitamin B and vitamin D deficiencies. She never mentioned the diabetic results and I was so surprised she called I forgot to ask. The private service I have to use for the retinopathy forgot to call me, so I had to call it. This is a new practice nurse and not too clued up yet. The old one retired last year was a gem, and appointments I've had for anything else came from her. The doctors are very hit and mis.. One told me that I had overwhelmed her with information from a hospital clinic and she couldn't fix everything. She had previously told me she was just a doctor and couldn't fix everything. I hadn't asked her to fix anything but to read what the clinic had suggested. The nest one had received a letter from a rheumatology clinic saying that I needed urgent relief for swollen legs. He never looked at my legs and told me to get support stockings, which I was already wearing. I left, but at my dibetic review test, one evening last month, the nurse took one look and went off looking for a doctor to take a look. They were both shocked so I'm now waiting on an apointment for a leg clinic and on strong painkillers....so here's hoping!
The online service is a complete nightmare. I do digital tech for the U3A and we've had people crying because of it. More investment in GP surgeries is sorely needed.