People with diabetes are entitled to a number of vital health checks, and to highlight the provision and importance of these services a new animation has been created by charity group Diabetes UK.
According to the organisatio, too few diabetes patients are taking advantage of these free annual health tests, which are vital for preventing diabetic complications and ensuring people with diabetes have the best possible chance of a long and healthy life.
Dubbed the 15 Healthcare Essentials, they include the basic health checks that everyone with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes should receive, from blood pressure and cholesterol checks to eye screening and kidney tests. They also include services like emotional and psychological support, access to specialist healthcare professionals, and diabetes education.
However, one of the problems is that many diabetes sufferers remain unaware of the level of care they are entitled to.
To mark the second anniversary of the launch of the 15 Healthcare Essentials, Diabetes UK has developed a short online animation (https://bit.ly/15Essentials), which it hopes will raise awareness of the high quality care that should be offered by healthcare professionals to patients with diabetes.
“The animation is a fun way of getting the message across but we also hope it communicates the serious message that people need to know about the healthcare they are entitled to receive,” Barbara Young, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said.
“We know that too few people with diabetes are getting consistently high-quality care at the moment and one of the ways of addressing this is to for people to compare the care they are getting to the standard of care set out in the 15 Healthcare Essentials.”
“We hope that both this animation and the 15 Healthcare Essentials in general can be the starting point of a conversation between people with diabetes and their healthcare professional about the care they are getting.”

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