Diabetes clinic - how often?

[veekaykay]

Hey everyone

Just a general question - how often should someone expect to be able to access diabetes clinic nurse appointments? I'm guessing this will vary depending on where people are with their diabetes, but is there a standard minimum other than foot/eye tests once a year?

My nurse went off sick in mid-November, just before what would have been our 2nd appointment. She isn't going to be back until after Christmas. This means I still haven't had pneumonia jab or cholesterol test yet, which I'm not too worried about right now, but I'm a bit concerned about what happens if she ISN'T back after Christmas. My GP practice seems to be just shrugging their shoulders and saying "nowt we can do." Is it normal for GP practices to have just one nurse that can do these things?

 

[trophywench]

Depends who else is employed by your GP Practice - we have two ladies actually termed as and employed as nurses who can do anything you'd expect a nurse to do whether it's take your stitches out, change your dressings for whatever or do annual (or more than annual) checks for diabetes, asthma or other complaints which also require regular checks, ECGs etc but also two employed purely as phlebotomists formerly who can do jabs, ECGs and other things as and when needed. There is still another one who is purely phlebotomy. I know not what any of their actual qualifications are though. Our surgery phleb services are used by a number of different GP surgeries, and the midwifery service is also the local centre along with the ultrasound service house there. Hence there are plenty of individuals to help fill the gap as and when needed - but ours is obviously not typical which is evidenced by the other surgeries accessing the services.

I'm not aware there is a 'normal' !

 

[veekaykay]

I'm not aware there is a 'normal' !

This is what I am beginning to suspect, which is probably fair enough in normal circumstances, but difficult if I'm trying to argue that they need to sort something out.

 

[Ljc]

Any Gp should be able to arrange the routine blood tests we need and give you the results .and arrange the Pneumonia vaccination. You could try a telephone conversation to see if Gp will arrange these

Some Gp practices have a Gp who has a special interest in diabetes, the receptionist will know if they do and who it is.

 

[veekaykay]

Any Gp should be able to arrange the routine blood tests we need and give you the results .and arrange the Pneumonia vaccination.

If the nurse isn't back in January, I'm going to push for this, but right now they seem to have the mindset of "leave all the diabetes stuff for the diabetes nurse."

 

[Ljc]

If the nurse isn't back in January, I'm going to push for this, but right now they seem to have the mindset of "leave all the diabetes stuff for the diabetes nurse."

Possibly because she knows more about it