Only a fifth of young adults with diabetes get all the health checks they need

[Northerner]

Currently being discussed at the Diabetes UK Professional conference:

Only a fifth of young adults aged 16 to 24 with diabetes receive the recommended care checks for their condition, according to research presented at the Diabetes UK Professional Conference 2012.

The study analysed data from the 2009?10 National Diabetes Audit (NDA) to identify that those aged 16 to 24 are the least likely of all age groups in England to receive the health checks and services they need. Only one in five young adults gets all the health processes recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), including eye examinations and foot checks.

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us...diabetes-get-all-the-health-checks-they-need/

 

[Caroline]

There has been a lot about it on the news recently too. I think it is for a variety of reasons, with the worst off being most affected.

 

[Phil65]

I might be playing devil's advocate here and don't want to offend anybody but surely in some cases the 'diabetic' themselves should be being pro-active and making sure that they look after themselves and get the recommended checks done regularly........I wait for the angry response 😛

 

[trophywench]

How much of it is actually down to the NHS though?

I'm not saying it's all down to patients but there are two sides, aren't there?

Hospital or GP sends you an appointment - eg Retinopathy. You say 'Sorry I will be in the Andes shearing llamas with VSO that week' and surgery say 'Oh well they are only here that day' and that's an end to it until next year. Or you forget until in the middle of a client meeting that has overrun by a considerable time - when you have your diary out to schedule something with them - you see you should have been at the hospital this afternoon. So you ring the hospital asap and they send a new one, 6 months hence - right in the middle of your holiday you have booked. And so it goes on .... The NHS round these parts are not flexible. You cannot speak to anyone in the D clinic in Coventry to book an appointment at the main hospital Even at the 'satellite' clinic I now attend in Rugby - where you do speak to a real person - when the letter comes out, it comes from Bridgend!

Had a right hoohah once at work when I had an appt in December - we weren't allowed any time off or holiday in December. So that was a THICK black mark on my copy-book. You don't do that twice I can tell you. Not when the mortgage depends on it ......

The real lives of patients interferes considerably with the NHS .....

 

[PhoebeC]

Being in this age group I think both me and my team the nhs should do more.

I hate booking appointments as it means time off work, and they are all silly times. I think more could/should be done to fit these things into peoples lives.

Yes im a diabetic, but i also need to work and other things going on in my life.

When was pregnant the care i got was fantastic, everyone was looking after me and now its nothing.

My last check up i missed because they told me one date we moved, we re-directed the post and the new letter about a closer time came after the date.

Also when i was off on mat leave i was told by my dentist not to take my daughter with me, this was not a choice for me as i had no childacre, so i yet again havent had the care i need.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Interesting responses so far...

There sesms to be another push to 'decentralise' care so much like the eye screening GP surgeries will be involved in weight/bp/foot & pulse checks. Thus freeing up time in clinics for them to do the trickier stuff.

I've just written some stuff for this year's QiC (quality in care) scheme saying that while I can see the sense in this from an NHS resources point of view (esp with more and more D patients to treat) - once you slice up a single appointment into 4 or 5 different chunks the patient has quadruple the waiting room time/transport hassles/requirement to book time off work...

And as Sedge says, if you dare to be busy when your slot comes up it always seems to be 6-12 months before you get another go. I waited 18 months for my last 'Annual Review' just cos the clinic had got a bit behind.

 

[Northerner]

This sort of thing was discussed at a recent meeting that I attended as a patient representative. The feeling was that so many young people were put off attending routine appointments in a hospital setting, and I must admit that the clinic I used to attend made me feel like a spring chicken. As has been said also, the inflexibility of appointments - and location is often also an issue if a lot of travel is included - is a big deterrent unless you really feel a pressing need to attend. For my eye appointments at the hospital, which could take less than 15 minutes at my surgery, it involves me in a two-bus journey followed by a 20 minute walk, an hour hanging around (at least), always way past the appointment time, then a somewhat spaced-out journey home. I'm lucky in being pretty flexible, but it's still a PITA so I can appreciate how much harder it must be if you have a more rigid work structure that makes it difficult to take a specific afternoon or day off work with no leeway.

I also wouldn't be surprised if a lot of young people are put off going because they fear they are going to be admonished r told thay are being 'bad diabetics' even if they are really trying.

The talk was that it might be much more attractive to younger people if all facilities could be held together in one purpose-built building, away from hospitals, with all the qualified staff available, and it would appeal to an old goat like me too! 🙂

 

[trophywench]

That's sort of one of the reasons I like the D centre at Rugby.

The hospital is set amongst fields (but only 10 mins walk from town centre) and it's set back from the road with lots of grass. You drive between the carpark and farmland, park your car on the very large surface carpark, then can either cut through Outpatients etc etc or walk round the edge (approx 4 mins gentle walk) round the back of the MRI suite and into a detached building, where it has it's own external entrance, upstairs from the Cov & Warwick Retinopathy Service offices.

Not a sick person, ambulance, uniform etc in sight!

Suits me.

 

[Laureny019]

Agree with a lot of what Northerner said on this topic. I go to my clinic appts because obviously it'd be stupid not to if I want to be as healthy as possible. However I honestly don't remember ever seeing anyone under 40 at any of my appointments.

As has already been said the appointments can be too inflexible, for example my local dietician clinic is held one day a month only. Then when my consultant asks to see me in 3 months it becomes a 6 month wait due to other appts. already booked. Or my personal favourite when you get near to the appointment, have booked the day off work & then get a letter saying it's been postponed by a month.

Lastly I honestly feel that there's sometimes a view that because the levels aren't perfect & the hba1c is pretty poor, it automatically becomes something that you are doing wrong.When if I do exactly the same things/ eat the same things everyday my levels would never be the same each time. Can see why people dont bother going as well when all i ever seem to hear about are the dreaded complications.

Sorry for what turned into a long ranty reply, just something I can relate to 🙂

 

[Tina63]

I actually consider my son (17) very lucky. Though he isn't conforming 100%, he is being checked both by the hospital and our GP, doubling everything it seems. Our GP is the type to dot all the i's and cross all the t's, and likes to have his own records 'because the hospital can't be relied on to send him the information'. Rubbish, we get copies (addressed to him) of every single appointment we have been to, with full blood, BP, weight, height etc records each time. He has had his eyes screened twice in 12 months, feet checked at least every 12 months and blood taken with amazing regularity and screened for all sorts.

I do wonder though how many in this age group get the appropriate appointments sent, but decide not to attend. Fortunately, though my son was messing big time with his testing/injecting the second half of last year (and still far from perfect, but improving) I don't think he has yet considered not attending an appointment. Of course he doesn't look forward to going, but does just get on with it. I am sure people with more angry attitudes at this age would simply refuse to go, therefore it not really being the NHS's fault.

 

[Tina63]

I should also add it can be a major pain for us to go. Our clinic appointments are always Monday afternoons, latest appointment 3.30. My son is doing A levels, so of course even the latest appointment means him missing some school. We sometimes have to travel by bus, that means 2 buses, after a half hour walk from home to our bus stop, so it can take up to an hour and a half to travel 15 miles. I am self employed and work from home, so having to have a half day off pretty regularly costs me money and inconvenices several other families (I am a childminder) but I put my son's needs first.

We then sometimes have to go and visit the DSN and dietician on the ward on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning (had home visits last year but this year we are dragged in there instead) so that can be even worse trying to get through the rush hour. I can see why some people would think twice about going too often, but certainly GPs should be on their toes (IMHO) to at least do all the blood/physical checks, the eyes are the only real specialist thing. Our GP writes to my son from time to time to see him if he hasn't been in in the meantime for prescription updates. I guess we are pretty lucky all round.