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NHS Direct & People with Diabetes

T

tubolard

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I have been invited to an NHS Direct conference on the 13th Feb covering how they could improve the service they provide to people with diabetes.

The services NHS Direct provide are detailed here.

The terms of reference for the conference are:

NHS Direct wants to rethink the support it offers people who phone the NHS Direct number and who have diabetes. It is embarking on a 6 month project to develop a revised telephone service and wants to develop better links to existing local and regional diabetes services.

This conference brings together a wide range of people with an interest in improving what NHS Direct offers to people with diabetes and includes:
• People with diabetes, some of whom have used NHS Direct
• Staff from Acute Hospitals, General Practice, Specialist and Community Services
• Staff from NHS Direct, Diabetes UK and the NHS Diabetes Support Team

We want to use the day to draw on participants experience and ideas:
1. To discuss and explore what NHS Direct could offer in the future to people who phone in and have diabetes.
2. To discuss and explore how NHS Direct can most usefully work with the existing network of regional and local services for people with diabetes.
3. To identify further work that needs to happen as part of the 6 month NHS Direct improvement project.

It is quite likely that the day will highlight other areas for improvement which fall outside NHS Direct’s responsibility and we will make every effort to see that these get taken up by the relevant organisation. The day is designed to give plenty of opportunity for discussion and developing ideas with others: we hope you will find it enjoyable, interesting and productive.

Some back ground information: At the moment NHS Direct receives calls from:

A. People who say they have diabetes and ask for help and advice.

B. People who have diabetes but don’t mention this and ask for help and advice.

C. People phone for help and advice who have diabetes but don’t know it or have not been diagnosed and during the telephone call symptoms of diabetes are identified by NHS Direct staff.

D. Often the help and advice sought by people phoning NHS Direct is to do with medications.

NHS Direct received 13,000 calls last year from callers regarding non symptomatic diabetes enquiries. The actual total numbers of people with diabetes who phone are not known as they are assessed according to symptoms rather than diagnosis, however, they do represent a large percentage of the 500,000 calls received every month by NHS Direct.

The Conference is designed to allow lots of time for focused discussion amongst the 100 or so delegates and opportunities to develop ideas and practical suggestions. We look forward to seeing you there and to it being a very productive and influential day.
Click to expand...

Having had some experience of both the telephone service and the information provided by their web site I have my own view of what I can contribute to the conference, I am open to taking input from members of this forum and feeding that back to NHS Direct if you want me to. Feel free to PM me, or add to this thread.

Regards, Tubs.
 
They can spend millions and improve their comms channels and info centres, access points etc with everyone being so helpfull and polite using the latest computors.

However if the message dosnt change ...........................................

Or am i just being pessimistic

Now select from the 3 following options
Dave P
 
I wholeheartedly accept your argument Dave, regardless of how much they spend on infrastructure - if the service is poor, the service will remain poor - how do you expect the service to change then, if feedback isn't given?

Regards, Tubs.
 
They do claim that the calls are answered by nurses, I suspect though, like most call centres the conversations are scripted.

Looking through the vacancy description for a nurse advisor they must be
a RN1 Sub Part 1 NMC Registered Nurse with advanced patient assessment and communication skills
Click to expand...
, a health information advisor gives non-medical advice like what action to take if you've forgotten your meds.

I guess any specialised training received would be viewed a bonus.

Regards, Tubs.
 
Tubs the arguement about provision of service is just that about service, the point about the message is the poor relation. It sounds to me like another reason to set up a patients forum - focus group - service profile comittee - operational workshop or other so that we feel like we are being listened to , involved included .

How will it change ? perhaps when theres a loud enough bang.


Dave P
 
tubolard said:
They do claim that the calls are answered by nurses, I suspect though, like most call centres the conversations are scripted.

Looking through the vacancy description for a nurse advisor they must be
a RN1 Sub Part 1 NMC Registered Nurse with advanced patient assessment and communication skills
Click to expand...
, a health information advisor gives non-medical advice like what action to take if you've forgotten your meds.

I guess any specialised training received would be viewed a bonus.

Regards, Tubs.
Click to expand...

Well ,I fit those qualifications ,Tubs,but until i became diabetic I really did not know much about it,it just was not something I needed or ,at that point ,was much interested in.My spheres of interest were more drugs/Dementia/and allied interests.Certainly I did all that in my training but it was all 'party-line 'stuff.
 
Sue,

So, when we receive good treatment is it from people who think outside the box, or is it from people who truly understand the party-line? If the latter, then those who treat us badly don't truly understand the party-line, if the former, then the box is the wrong shape then isn't it?

Regards, Tubs.
 
I realise that,just like GP's,nurses can't be an expert on everything but...if they are stating that that is one of their major calls,maybe it would be a good idea for them to have refresher courses in major subjects now and again.
 
Sorry, I misunderstood your point, and I couldn't agree with you more.

Tubs.
 
Hi

Several years ago i used to work for an organisation called Healthwise, before NHS Direct took over.

I hope their systems have changed since i was there as we used to work along side them in the same room.

How they used to answer calls was your call was screened by a health care proffessional and if it was only general information required then this was read out from patient information sheets held on a database.

If you required medical information a nurse would ring you back. They used a database and asked you the questions that came up on screen and when they clicked on the answers another menu popped up, for eg, what type of pain you have, sharp, burning, etc and depending on which answer they clicked on it took them to another menu like the menu's on windows xp and vista.

With everyone being different, symptoms can point to different conditions, and basically every phonecall which relates to medical problem they played it safe and told them to contact gp or A & E.

I must again say this was several years ago and hope they have changed their practices

Juliexx
 
Hi Tubs,
To be honest, it would not occur to me to use NHS Direct for "routine" advice...just when something is very wrong! My hubby used it when I was so hypo I was unconscious..and they told him to call an ambulance. It was the right thing to do to be honest. If it was a problem that wasn't immediately dangerous, I would call an "expert" ie. the diabetes clinic or help. Even they aren't always fantastic, so I personally think that NHS direct should concentrate their diabetes resources to helping people who are not sure ifthey are diabetic, and call, looking for answers.

I did call the about my baby son last week, and did get a very nice chap who answered the phone...listened to me, asked me some questions and hen put me through to a nurse. She then refered me to the GP. To be quite honest, as far as diabetes goes, I don't think that they are in a good position to advise, as they do not have reliable data and history to advise upon! Even on this board, where the advise is usually fantastic, our experts like to know a the details of someones medication, blood sugar etc. Often, the questioner does not know the answer, or at least has to go away and have a look, which is not always possible on a phone call.

Good for you though! I agree completely. There is little point in complaining about something if we aren't prepared to try and improve it. Wishing you lots of luck,
S
 
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