Pneumonia within type 2 diabetes

Hi I am very sorry to hear about your mother and the lack of care she received. I can only speak for my own experience. I live in Wandsworth South West London. The care and assistance that I have received since being diagnosed has been fantastic both at my GP's surgery and my local hospital diabetic nurse team. However I am aware from other members of my family who have received poor care within the NHS it is very much a post code lottery.

Hi biantluke1988
I am sick of people allway going on the nhs go to other countries and people with diabetes can not afford to get drugs as they are not free I know we pay in to nhs and know it not perfect but trust me it not that bad sorry I am not have a go at you but you would like to hear people view sorry about your mum

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Hi Luke.

My aunty passed away a few years ago after suffering poor levels of care from the NHS. All I can say is persevere, you will hit brick walls on the way but keep at it. Go to your local health authority Patient Advice and Liaison Service and make your official complaint. That's the first place to start, and unless you've discussed it formally with them first, no one else will listen to you. They will just redirect you back to PALS.
The next step is the Chief Executive of your Health Trust, then your local MP, and copy in the Health Minister.
The first reaction of the NHS upper echelons is to brush any complaint under the carpet, but I found that as soon as my local MP was aware of the situation, I did start to get somewhere and an investigation was conducted.

Good luck. The only way you can change poor care levels is to challenge them. Believe me, even if you get letters back fobbing you off, someone somewhere will be taking notice.

Hi m8, I had faced the same issue and can recommend you to read this article:
http://pneumoniahelp.net/treatment/antibiotics-for-pneumonia
It contains infor,ation about pneumonia treatment.

Hi Luke, I'm sorry to hear about your Mum.

Poorly controlled diabetes can result in a number of problems, and pneumonia may well be one of them (you probably know more about that than me). To what extent there is direct cause and effect again I don't know.

On the issue of care, there is a general problem, especially with T2, that DNs are obliged to advise people to eat the 'healthy balanced diet' or 'Eatwell Plate' because that is what the NICE guidelines tell them. They are advised to eat carbohydrates with every meal. Frankly this is wrong for most diabetics because carbs turn quickly to sugar and have an adverse impact on blood glucose. This partly explains why diabetes is often regarded as inevitably a declining condition. The advice goes back to the dogma of low fat = good and high fat = bad (wrong) and too much protein being bad for the kidneys (which it can be). There is now considerable evidence that high fat is perfectly OK and so reducing carbs need not deprive the body of calories. Many T2s on here manage their condition well by ignoring NICE guidance and eating a low carb diet.

Tragically there are thousands, maybe tens of thousands of T2 diabetics whose condition is deteriorating through no real fault of their own, yet the DNs continue to tell them to eat carbs.

Again my condolences regarding your Mum, and well done for seeing what you can do in her memory.

Hi Brian. Sorry about your mum. I had severe chest sepsis and ended up with Acute Respiratory Failure in 2012. I was admitted to ICU and was ventilated in an induced coma for a month. Spent 8 weeks in hospital. Suggest you ask for the Pneumococcal jab. This is a one off jab, lasts for life and covers you from a lot of nasty pathogens that can attack a diabetic when their immune system is low.