Diabetes care for you. Poll.

[catherinecherub]

It is always interesting to read the level of care that diabetics are experiencing.
I would like to conduct a poll to see who is getting what and also it gives an insight into why the forum is so useful. I am also interested in seeing the possible percentages.
Perhaps you could answer the question and then give reasons why.


PLEASE CAN MEMBERS VOTING ALSO PUT THEIR REASONS BELOW AS WELL.
No discussions please.

cugila
Forum Monitor

 

[Synonym]

My surgery has a GP specialist who openly says he knows nothing about diabetes. The DN there is anti cutting carbs and testing. This is so unhelpful that I have opted to have my care undertaken at the hospital clinic as the pressure from the consultant ensured that I got a prescription for testing strips.

I would be happier if there was available and open minded expertise at my local surgery.

 

[cugila]

My Diabetes care is excellent.
I am treated at the local Hospital Diabetic Clinic 5 minutes from my home. My Endo is brilliant, I can speak to him at any time by mobile phone or just arrange to drop in between appointments. I see him ever 4 mths at present or as and when required. Any problems are sorted quickly. I have known him for 9 years. He allows me to monitor all my blood tests and also tick the boxes if I feel I need to know the result of a certain test. Not many do that !

My SDSN is also fantastic. She too is contactable by mobile phone etc and always calls back if engaged. Extremely knowledgable and efficient. I see her every 2 months or as and when required. We discuss my Diabetes and WE make decisions. It is always my choices which are agreed. I have known her for 9 years.

My GP openly admits that I know more about Diabetes than he does. He let's me get on with things and is very supportive, because he can see my excellent results and good control. No problem with any amount of test strips I need being prescribed. He is a great GP and knows his limitations.

My Practice Nurse is well informed and her dietary advice includes telling people to reduce those carbohydrates. Something I was glad to hear. She does my annual, bloods and 'tickle' but leaves all Diabetes care to the Hospital team.

My eyesight is cared for by a local Opthamologist/Optician who have just one shop. I have been with them for over 13 years and always get great service, appointments to suit me and am well looked after.

All of the above are treated like friends and one or two actually are. We have a good relationship because we respect each other. Works very well for me.

The two 'flies in the ointment' are first of all the Podiatry team.......they spent 18 months trying to sort out a foot problem. I gave them the push and sorted it myself. No problems since, I don't see them anymore.

Secondly, the Dietician. She is very 'old school' and we had 'words' about her dietary advice. I haven't seen her for some time now. The new Dietician is much better and also goes along with reducing carbohydrates to control Diabetes. A much more modern and enlightened Woman. She sees the results and knows what is working for people. However, she does treat everybody as an individual, no 'mantra', just common sense.

Ken

 

[hanadr]

My care is good in that I do it myself. They prescribe Metformin for me and I ask for six monthly blood tests. They only arrange annual ones. I buy my own strips and although I like the nurse and chat to her occasionally, Itell her what I'm doing and she nods her head. I get an occasional message from my Gp to ask me to come in and get my blood pressure measured. Otherwise, the last year or so, I've seen GP for a bladder infection. And that's it. He checked my blood pressure then and said it was higher than he liked, but I pointed out I'd just walked the 3 miles to the surgery.
Eye tests and feet tests happen annually.

 

[mazbee]

It took a while to get a grip on myself and diabetes when first diagnosed.
I only saw the DN from diagnosis until about 6 weeks ago.

I have now seen our practice Dr for diabetes and managed to get across all my other health problems, which she has helped me to sort out, she also gave me a bg meter, but only wants me to test once a week. :roll:

I have with the help of this forum reduced my weight, BG, hba1c & cholesterol in the last 4 months since diagnosis.
The advice from my medical team was quite poor and scanty, but to be fair to Ian my DN he is rushed off his feet looking after nearly all the diabetic patients on the books of an 8 Dr. practice.
I don't think he gets too much time for training and updates :lol:

 

[sugarless sue]

My diabetes care is via my local GP. No complaints there, she is very amenable to discussion and I get my test strips on repeat prescription and am not pressured into taking uneccessary medications.

I have never been offered either a course or a referal to an Endocrinologist however.

I can have three monthly HbA1c and Cholesterol checks.

The practice nurses are not DSN's so vary in diabetic knowledge but for the most part do not argue with my chosen way of treating my diabetes except to offer occasional advice !

 

[Rushy]

I'm still a little bugged by the way my GP surgery handles things.
Sometimes the NICE guidelines only seem to apply when the patients quote them at the nurses.

 

[Amansco]

I asked my GP to refer me to a different hospital as the diabetic care team at my local hospital don't count carbs and I have no knowledge of what this is about but realise a lot of diabetics do this as a matter of course. I was referred to a different hospital but unfortunately the new consultant I saw was a nightmare - he had no interest in my diabetes whatsoever. All he went on about was me losing weight. He advised me to come to his "medical" clinic whereby he was going to prescribe "a hefty" dose of Prozac as he said although this drug is an anti depressant, this drug has been found to help lose weight. I informed him that I had actually lost 2 stone in the last few month but he just shot me down in flames. He then informed me that my Parents had a lot to answer to because if "I had been born in the ice-age, because I am "fat", I would have survived but people like him (being so slim) would have perished". I left his room in tears and couldn't even talk to my husband who had been waiting outside. It turned out this Consultant was a good friend of my other Consultant. I went back to my GP and she was a bit bemused and said she would write to my original consultant which she did but he has refused to take me back on as a patient because I went for a 2nd opinion. I have chronic health problems from which 3 of the drugs I have to take every day have caused me to gain weight. My blood sugars are all over the place and the only support I get is from my GP. I am disgusted with the Consultants I saw - I thought they had a duty to care for their patients but all I received from them was verbal abuse. My GP has arranged for me to start Byetta in the next few days which I will have to take with my insulin (Humalog) even though it hasn't been trialled to be used with insulin in the UK. I trust my GP and will give this a go despite being on the drug Avandia which eventually affected my heart and I had to come off this drug immediately. If it wasn't for my GP, I would have no care from a diabetic professional. I am disgusted with the whole experience and feel that I am out on a limb.

 

[candyfloss]

I almost put adequate but I think the attitude with regard to test strips stopped me. It made me think and realise the most help I have received is through this forum and self help. If I hadnt spent a fair amount of my own money on testing and strips I probably would never have been the wiser just how much I should avoid some foods and drinks. Doctors should be under an obligation to prescribe the newly diagnosed and provided people use the strips and report findings back to their doctor/nurse continue to supply on an as needed basis.
For what its worth thats my view anyway.

 

[etmsreec]

I find that diabetes care is very variable. GPs want to do diabetes care and it's often a real fight to get referred to the local hospital, the local podiatrist etc as the GP thinks they are able to do it all.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, the GP's surgery is usually not skilled enough to run my diabetes care.

I've moved around a bit over the last ten to 15 years, going from the north west to the east midlands to the south and back to the north west. When in the south, I started having real problems with high BMs whilst my HbA1c was coming back lower and lower. The GP I moved to in the north west wanted to take care of my diabetes, saw that the fructosamine indicated a MUCH higher average than the HbA1c and then gave up and referred me to the local hospital.

My present GP would like to do the care of my diabetes in the surgery but given my last experience, I'd rather not take the risk. Last week, having been complaining of pains in my toes and being referred to the local podiatry service by the hospital that I was at before moving GPs, I was told by the nurse at the surgery that there was, "nothing that anyone could do if it was neuropathy," and that the local podiatry service, "may take a look at me but they might not do more than she had." She'd done a finger test on the pulse points in my feet, checked that I could feel the nylon fibre thing in both feet in five places (pad on big and little toes, inner and outer edges of the heel and one point on the arch) and that was that.

So, my point here is that the GP wants to take control of type 1 diabetics. Usually, they don't have the skills. The hospitals I will grant you are getting filled with type 1 diabetics and type 2 diabetics since the condition seems to be reaching epidemic proportions. As a result, they aren't willing to take on thousands of new patients. The frustration is that they are the only ones with the skills to take effective care of patients, give them the education that they require, resolve issues when they arise and reduce the chances of problems further down the line.

 

[lovinglife]

My DSN is great - she is very approachable and I can contact her any time and if she isn't available will return my call. She approves of my reduced carb low G.I. diet and has never quoted the "plenty of carbs" mantra. She agrees that I can stay off statins if I can get my chol below 5 - and she is giving me time to try and do that - I get full set of tests every 3 months and she even got the lab to agree to do a fasting chol test even though they don't do them in my area!??

She encourages me to be pro active in my management of my diabetes and takes my other health issues into account at all times.

She has also said that she will do a "home visit" to talk to my son when I explained how anxious he was about me having diabetes - hopefully this will help him - so for that I gave an excellent.

One thing that lets my care down though is she isn't keen on me testing so much - but I have talked with her and explained why and she is ok with it as long as it doesn't become obsessive - although she said she can't prescribe me the amount of strips that I need

But all things considered my care is good

 

[Beav]

I voted excellent. I have an appointment every 4 months and I have a blood test / eyes screened every year. (I hate the blood test and nearly pass out every time). The only problem is I have to travel 20miles to the hospital when my GP is a 5 - 10minute walk away from my house and I have to arrange travel to get to the hospital as im not driving yet. :?

 

[jennings]

I feel my care is lacking in several ways. I was diagnosed four years ago and have never been referred to a diabetes nurse. My GP will not prescribe testing equipment as she says since I am T2, I am not suceptible to hypos and am therefore not entitled to such prescriptions. I have contacted my MP and the answer she got back was that the PCT do not allow the the GPs in this area to prescribe the the test strips. I only get an HBA1c test once each year. So I presume you would all agree that my treatment is quite abysmal.

 

[banjo brunette]

I've voted excellent. Just come back from my annual diabetic review at the GP's. Podiatrist checked my feet and gave me some advice about a (non-diabetic) foot problem - excellent.

Saw a GP from my practice - she has taken over the annual review clinic from my "regular" diabetic specialist GP who has gone part-time, so we now have two bright, well-informed diabetes bods - again excellent.

Saw the dietitian, not so good - we agreed to disagree about my low-carb lifestyle, even though I explained that I'd just been discharged from the diabetic clinic at my local hospital due to the bril HBa1C results). She warned me about losing too much weight (chance would be a fine thing :wink: ), watching out for hypos and reminded me that diabetes was a progressive disease (as if I'd forgotten) and finished by saying that I would obviously carry on with the LC diet whatever she said (too right).

Like the experience of a previous poster, ANNUAL retinopathy screening is done locally and I go to my local optician who is able to spend time going through the scans/shots with me explaining any odd-looking bits (he;s astonishingly thorough).

All-in-all I feel VERY well served by my diabetic team - certainly much better than my Mother's experience in a different part of the UK...

Cheers, BB

 

[phil2440]

I'd call my care adequate. I see the Nurse a couple of times a year. The health authority arrange my annual retina scan. The only time the medicos seem to want to engage is if they think something is going wrong. I haven't been offered Podiatric or Dietitian appointments. No advice over help groups or stuff like that. My last H1AB was 5.3 & weight is stable. (Though I'm 4st overweight). They just don't seem interested.

 

[Jenni_1984]

I checked the box that my care has changed for the better. In 2008 my clinic appointed it's first DSN who is fantastic. She is type 1 so really understands the difficulties we face. What's great is to have someone giving you advice about your condition from the perspective of someone who actually lives with it. She is always on hand to offer advice and genuinely seems to want to help. I really dislike the scare tactics that have been used in the past to frighten me into good control - not that I've ever had bad control - but I always felt when I was growing up with diabetes that every clinic visit was about focussing on the side effects when my control was always good. Very bad stance to focus on negatives when there are obvious positives!

Until I started visiting this forum I would say the information I had about diabetes and the products on offer was based on what my clinic and health board were prepared to offer. It sounds naive, but up until a few weeks ago I would never had dreamt about challenging my consultant about the insulin I am on. I would also never had considered the pump and I would never have realised that my driving licence should be restricted! The move from patriarchal 'I'm telling you so this is how you do it' style of care has been fantastic in engaging people in their management of diabetes.

The inconsistency of care throughout the UK is staggering. I am unable to access a DAFNE course because my clinic and area does not offer one and the other clinics in Glasgow will not take a patient from another area. It would be great if clinics could offer impartial advice on what's out there...but then obviously they're going to push drugs they have!

Jenni

 

[noblehead]

I voted excellent. I am fortunate that I have a brilliant gp and a dedicated diabetes care team at my local hospital. I feel confident that I am receiving the best care and advice on all matters to do with my health, whether it is diabetes related or not.

Nigel

 

[Falcon]

After 4 years visiting my GP who said my tiredness was down to looking after and worrying about my disabled son I visited LLoyds pharmacy who diagnosed me as Diabetic. 2 years later on my GP missed an increased raise to 8.0 on my Hab1c test. He did apologise but that is not the only time he has got things seriously wrong. Saw the GP in the practice who was meant to be the Diabetic specialist she confessed that the information they use is dated and they do not distinguish between any of the Type 2 Diabetes. She had no clue about the current low/high carb debate so it really doesn't inspire confidence. It has taken me 1 year to convince them that Metformin was not working and she eventually but me on Glicazide results were staggering. My Hab1c is now down to 6.5 ( with high doses of Metformin it was 8.0). Having a disabled son I have seen a variety of consultants and GPs and most of them have been OK but they don't really listen and they don't seem to care. I actually have more confidence in the Diabetic Practice Nurse than I do in any of the GPs.

 

[Caroline W]

My doctor claims to be diabetic, yet he seems to know nothing at all about the condition. All the support and information I get comes from this forum and another forum I use. I'm wondering if I should wait for him to retire or see if I can find another surgery...

 

[catherinecherub]

Keep them coming folks.

I am thinking of writing to the new Health Secretary about the non -uniformity of advice and treatment for diabetics depending on post codes and will use some quotes from your posts, (anonymous of course) and the overall poll results.

Catherine.