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Please help improve diabetes care

T

twoolfson

Member
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22
I am a UK specialist physician with a particular interest in diet and diabetes. In more than 30 years of clinical practice, I have become more and more aware of how much trouble people with diabetes have in knowing what and how to eat to get their diabetes and ther weight under good control.
I am now doing something about this. I am in the process of setting up a website dedicated to helping people understand more about how their diet can be designed so that it is enjoyable while doing all the things it is necessary to do medically. This is not difficult to do, and can have great benefits in improving quality of life and avoiding complications.

You can help me and yourselves by telling me what you think should be included and what the approach to different problems should be.

You can either go to my website http://www.diabetes.woolfson.net and answer just 2 questions anonymously, or send me an email to [email protected] with any comments or suggestions. I will answer all emails personally.

Thanks for your involvement in what I intend to be a groundbreaking website. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tony Woolfson

Dr Tony Woolfson MB BS DM MRCP
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by twoolfson</i>
<br /><P>I am a UK specialist physician with a particular interest in diet and diabetes. In more than 30 years of clinical practice, I have become more and more aware of how much trouble people with diabetes have in knowing what and how to eat to get their diabetes and ther weight under good control.</P>
<P>I am now doing something about this. I am in the process of setting up a website dedicated to helping people understand more about how their diet can be designed so that it is enjoyable while doing all the things it is necessary to do medically. This is not difficult to do, and can have great benefits in improving quality of life and avoiding complications.

You can help me and yourselves by telling me what you think should be included and what the approach to different problems should be.

You can either go to my website http://www.diabetes.woolfson.net and answer just 2 questions anonymopusly, or send me an email to [email protected] with any comments or suggestions. I will answer all emails personally.

Thanks for your involvement in what I intend to be a groundbreaking website. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tony Woolfson

Dr Tony Woolfson MB BS DM MRCP
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I personally doubt your motives. 2 questions will not give you any idea at all what it's like to be diabetic!


Patti
On Levemir/Novorapid. Last hba1c 5.3
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Pattidevans</i>
<br />

I personally doubt your motives. 2 questions will not give you any idea at all what it's like to be diabetic!


Patti
On Levemir/Novorapid. Last hba1c 5.3
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

No, of course not, but the questions will help me to know what people are unhappy with and want to know, so that I can address these issues on the website. I have already had around 40 replies, which reveal considerable dissatisfaction with current levels of care and a number of important subjects that I hadn't thought about.

What dubious motives do you think I may have?

TW
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ChocFish</i>
<br />Include The Cure please, and the Stone Age diet

Thank you

Karen
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I'm familiar with the Stone Age diet - can you give me some specific info on The Cure, so I can take a look?

Thanks,

TW
 
I can answer them here

<b>What gets you down most about having diabetes?</b>

Having to think hard about the quantity of everything I eat, and how long it will be before I start to get eye/kidney etc etc trouble

<b>What could your doctor do that would best help you with your diet ?</b>

Lean on the PCTs to lift the short sighted money driven ban on self testing for non insulin dependent diabetics.

I had a letter from my GP before Christmas saying that they would only allow one tube of testing strips per year on prescription as medication is dictated by the HBa1C test.

This gives me the impression that as far as the PCT is concerned, the only factor in good BG control is dispensed medication, and lifestyle plays very little part in it ! - (a N.I.C.E. dictat I assume)

I'm overdue for a HBa1C test, but to be honest I have put it off because I am hopping mad about this.

Due to this 'save now, pay later' policy, What will happen in reality is that I will just keep popping the pills in increasing doses (with the risk of side effects) and eating what I want and exercising when I get the urge until my HBa1C test comes back high and they will then put me onto insulin - at which time, the cost of my treatment will go through the roof, and will then be looking at all sorts of medical complications :x

Of course I'm not bitter at a system I pay handsomely for returning such a poor decision driven by 'bean counted' decisions as opposed to 'best practice' in the interests of most effective patient care [:(!]
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ash</i>
<b>What could your doctor do that would best help you with your diet ?</b>

Lean on the PCTs to lift the short sighted money driven ban on self testing for non insulin dependent diabetics.

.....

Due to this 'save now, pay later' policy, What will happen in reality is that I will just keep popping the pills in increasing doses (with the risk of side effects) and eating what I want and exercising when I get the urge until my HBa1C test comes back high and they will then put me onto insulin - at which time, the cost of my treatment will go through the roof, and will then be looking at all sorts of medical complications :x

Of course I'm not bitter at a system I pay handsomely for returning such a poor decision driven by 'bean counted' decisions as opposed to 'best practice' in the interests of most effective patient care [:(!]

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

What can I say?! Except that I agree. The present short sighted beancounting is costing us all dear. When will these guys realise that decent care is the only sensible way to go?


Please do not go the route you describe above. It is unnecessary. Take a look at a lower carb approach. There's lots of stuff about this on the net.

Feel free to email me if you want to check anything out.

TW
 
And thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to reply to the questionnaire so far - a great range of responses. Diabetes care in the UK seems to have a few deficiencies...

When I've been through them in detail, I will post a summary here.

All the best,

TW
 
I think an apology is in order for showing you the sharp side of my tongue :oops: (but you did ask ;) )

I am sick to the back teeth of paying into a system which is supposed to have my best interests at heart(as a patient), when it has become seems apparent that it has turned into a giant money making machine which exists to guarantee a decent final salary pension to its workers rather than its original objective it was set up to do !

We as patients (or customers) have little say in what we get for our expenditure

If it were a private business, it would have gone under years ago :x
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ash</i>
<br />I think an apology is in order for showing you the sharp side of my tongue :oops: (but you did ask ;) )

I am sick to the back teeth of paying into a system which is supposed to have my best interests at heart(as a patient), when it has become seems apparent that it has turned into a giant money making machine which exists to guarantee a decent final salary pension to its workers rather than its original objective it was set up to do !

We as patients (or customers) have little say in what we get for our expenditure

If it were a private business, it would have gone under years ago :x
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

No apology necessary! The system is, as you say, largely unresponsive to client opinion!

It would certainly have gone under if it were a private business, but it isn't a private business, nor, in my opinion, should it be run like one. The purpose of this system should be cleary identified as to provide quality (and, yes, cost effective) care, not bottom line profit.

A plague on the beancounters, politicians and management consultants who seem to run the NHS these days and who have about as much idea how to do it as I do about 14th century art.

Rant over.

Keep on truckin'...

TW
 
Ash, if the NHS was a private system - then you would have to pay full price for all your neds and needles and test strips. 50-60 million US Americans have no health insurance- I wonder how these diabetics do (1-2% prevalence- 500,000 to 1,000,000 uninsured citizens in the richiest most powerful country in the world)?

The NHS can't be perfect, but it is better than the vast majority of countries I can think of (apart from Scandinavia- but they have a huge income tax levy far in XS of the UK).

I have seent the drawbacks to the NHS myself recently in getting a certain aspect of my osteomyelitis treatment organised. I am just glad I live in the UK.

They quality of care accross the NHS is far higher than that I came accross in the time I was a medical student for a while in the US.

I think one of the biggest problems to solve is the postcode lottery (especially comparing SW12 with G12). NICE/SMC guidance should be adopted universally.

Marty B
 
I don't know if this is the same person but I did a search on his name and qualifications. It now puzzles me as to what Tony's motives are. Is he trying to help us or make money.

Extract in response to a seminar he had attended.

Hi Robert,

Good to meet you today and thanks for an interesting seminar. This is the first time that I can truthfully say that I can see a way to make some serious money
on the Internet. You not only explain the concepts very clearly, but you provide the means to put them into practice…
Dr Tony Woolfson MB BS DM MRCP
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by bluebird</i>
<br />I don't know if this is the same person but I did a search on his name and qualifications. It now puzzles me as to what Tony's motives are. Is he trying to help us or make money.

Extract in response to a seminar he had attended.

Hi Robert,

Good to meet you today and thanks for an interesting seminar. This is the first time that I can truthfully say that I can see a way to make some serious money
on the Internet. You not only explain the concepts very clearly, but you provide the means to put them into practice…
Dr Tony Woolfson MB BS DM MRCP



<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

It is indeed me, and the seminar was one on Internet marketing.

I have worked with computers and on the internet for some considerable time, and have lost some (not a lot) of money on various (completely non-medical) Internet marketing ventures.

I went to the seminar to learn how to do it better and have indeed been more successful in my non-medical projects since.

The diabetes website is a newer idea and came about because I could see the potential of communicating effectively with a broad audience through a membership website. I believe that the level and nature of care that most diabetics get (in the UK and in the US) is poor, and that the basic approaches to much of what is promoted by doctors and dieticians are often simply wrong. There is much evidence to support this view, and I am actively researching low carb and low trans-fat science at the moment, with a view to looking in an unbiased way at every approach to diabetes care.

When I was a consultant in Nottingham, I looked after the nutritional care of the sickest patients in the hspital as well as being involved with the diabetes, so I have many years backgound in these subjects.

I have always been interested and active in new areas in whatever I have done. At the age of 60, I am looking to reduce my clinical commitments a bit, but I am also looking to use the experience, knowledge and skills I have gained over the years to good effect.

The meberships will be low cost (approx £5 per month), a level designed to pay for the time and effort that it is taking and will continue to take to produce something that I hope will be valuable and innovative. If I do make serious money on the internet, (which would be great) it will be in other projects.

Maybe I should have stated that I intended to charge for some memberships in my first post. There will be free options too, and the associated blog will also be free.

You can check who I am and where I am on my personal website http://www.tony.woolfson.net.

I hope that this allays your anxieties. I have had many positive responses from this forum, and they are helping me formulate the best way to put the site together.

If you have any further questions, I will do my best to answer them.

Tony Woolfson
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by bluebird</i>
<br />Hi Tony

You were going to post a summary on the 15th - be interested to read it.

Val
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Very sorry - have been on call the last few days.

Will be there within the next 48 hours.

TW
 
Tony,

Typically if people wish to use the forum for anything related to money, they have the courtesy to ask first. I'm prepared to leave this up if genuinely useful information for this community appears, but I am uncomfortable about any attempts to solicit money.

Admin
 
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