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Just an observation ..

Enclave

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
2,602
Location
Scotland
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
If there are so many people being diagnosed with diabites it must be very common in the medical surgery .. If this is the case then why are so many of us being given bad or no advice on how to handle this condition. Also if this is the case with a common condition .. How would your medic handle something more unusual, I have had conditions missed by local doctors.
I think the time has come to expect more from people that are ment to be advising.
I know this is not the case for everyone .. But is it too much to expect people to know how to do their job.
Sorry just needed to rant a bit
 
You are very right.
 
@catherinecherub .. Sorry I missed your posting ... So it all stews down to money ... Not an excuse in my book .. If you take a job then you take a job .. And do it to the best of your ability .. Not to the ability of the pay packet !
OK I am not in the medical profession .. As it holds no interest to me .. But if I had a title of db nurse I would do my research and be able to advise and have an open mind to questions. ( when I asked the db nurse about the Newcastle diet .. Her reply was .. Never heard of it .. It's stupid and don't test either)
My db nurse proved she could read my holding her finger under each word in the DB magazine and reading it out loud like a Janet and John book ... If I tried to ask a question I was told not to as she had not finished reading. Then the final insult was to give me the dam magazine so I could go home and try to read it on my own ! Sorry but *** was that all about.
My doctor is just as good .. Saying he's no time to answer any questions see the nurse .. And ordered to get a hobby ! *** was that all about ....
Why do the medical profession work by a different set of rules to the rest of the world .. In my wife's line of work (yes I know the wife again) it is up to her to keep up to date with the latest advances in horticulture .. No one pays her for the extra hours spent looking up and researching her subject .. She has to fund herself to advance herself if she wants extra .. Like landscape designing ..
There are those that take a pride in their work (even if it's controlled via regulations) and can converse with joe public in an educated way .. And others like my db nurse and doctor who come across like they don't know or care about their job .. Your just part of what they HAVE to do to get their money ...
I know not all are like this .. So if have a good one look after them .. If you have one like I have then you are not alone in having to find your own way
 
I HAD a great DN .....,.but she retired earlier this year. My new one suggested I try weetabix for breakfast
 
I think you are placing the blame in the wrong place. The educators are the ones who educate the HCPs and they rely on evidence based solutions.

I'll give you a scenario about available courses.
The course is held on a Tuesday afternoon for 4 weeks. The Line Manager will put your name forward for the course in advance and you will be given the necessary paperwork. The week before the course is due to start you are told that you will not be able to attend as there are staff shortages so the only way you will be able to do a similar course is to look for a privately funded one but the only one you can find is a hundred miles away, is held during working hours and it is extremely likely that the NHS will not recognise the qualification, let alone let you have the time off. These courses are not cheap and you may have to pay as much as £200. There is no room for manouver and so the course is out of your reach for the forseeable future. You were originally one of the lucky ones if the figures on the link are anything to go by but it does not mean that you will successfully finish a course.

http://www.optometry.co.uk/news-and-features/news/?article=6366

The practice nurse, who is treated as a jack of all trades will need courses in palliative care, asthma, paediatrics, wound dressings, diabetes.....the list is endless and she will be very lucky if she gets one course let alone all the necessary ones.
We tend to see diabetes as a priority, after all we are diabetics but I am sure that people with other chronic conditions are just as disillusioned by the care they get. In an ideal world all HCPs would be up to date with the latest health initiatives but we do not live in an ideal world

How do we change things? We can moan all we like but what is the solution? Should we be paying more taxes to fund the healthcare we need? Should we be lobbying our MPs about what is happening?
 
I have a rare condition. So rare that most docs have not heard of it. Diagnosed by allergy consultant who sent a detailed letter to GP. If I see GP about symptoms of the rare disorder he just changes the subject back to diabetes or weight or BP. so I just manage the symptoms myself, and refer back to the consultant when I need to.
 
@catherinecherub, I don't think the educators are to blame .. Or the system .. It's the person who's doing the job .... In the same medical practice I see a heart failure nurse .. She is great .. Up to date with info and you can talk to her .. She knows her job ... The DB one is near retirement and is not bothered about anything you want to ask ! She just wants her pay packet at the end of the month. Don't blame the man at the top for the failings of those under them. If they take the job then DO THE JOB .. Don't want to hear .. O there is no funding .. No time off work .. No one will pay me .. I wish the courses my wife attended was only £200 !

Edit to add .. The solution is not more money being tipped down the drain .. It's not paying these people who cannot or will not do their job ..
 
HCPs need to keep a portfolio of their continuing professional development. So it is essential that they receive regular, relevant time to study, especially with the pace of new research and developments in patient care. Not all want to bother. Some that do want to are not given the time or the resources to do so. It is mandatory though, if they are to stay registered as HCPs. So what is wrong with a system where there are HCPs not keeping up to date? Perhaps expectations being too high? Not possible for one individual to become expert in a particular condition in GP practice.

In GP surgeries, with our current system of Clinical Commissioning Groups, dictating terms and controlling budgets we have a service reduced to payment for ticking boxes. So, you don't always get a service to meet individual patient needs. For instance, there are targets for getting certain groups of patients to have flu vaccination. Payment depends on it, so they harass those patients at this time of year until they conform. Seeing a high volume of patients thus, means less appointments available to those needing an appointment for other issues. Another example that made me baulk recently was a local GP practice being feted for providing a lunch club once a month for elderly, lonely people. Nice picture of 4 oldies sitting round a table in the waiting room, being served tea and cake by the smiling practice manager. Same practice manager that decided when the patients in a local dementia care home need a home visit from the doc to tell the staff there to call the out of hours service instead. Sadly, I believe the system is partly to blame, but the individuals making up that system are allowing it to develop that way.
 
@pip, I agree .. Don't expect them to be expert at everything .. But when the Db nurse is ordering you to drink fizzy drinks and eat fish twice a week .. And cut back on red meat .. After you told her TWICE you are vegetarian .. I know she was not giving a dam about anything .. Apart from her money that is

Edited to add ... I pay my tax for this .. Don't give them more money for not doing their job.. Please if your good at your job then you are worth your weight in gold .. Don't allow the not bothered drag you down to their level all for a few pieces of sliver... Support and look after your DB nurse if you have a good one .. If like me they are a waste of space .. Report them to the practice manager .. It does no good and nothing changes .. But at least you know you tried to make things better for others that see then after you
 
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I would go beyond reporting that to the practice manager. Jeremy Hunt would hear from me. AND I would not let it lie. He would be getting grief from me every day until he sorted it.
 
I would leave the surgery . but my heart nurse is wonderful and don't want to loose her ..
 
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