Yearly diabetes check ups.

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Jill

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Type 2
Hello, Does anyone know if GP's get paid extra for conducting the yearly check up? Any information would be appreciated..
 
Hi Jill, my GP does not do yearly check ups but the diabetic nurses, the DSNs, do. All my GPs over the years seam to have only a limited knowledge of diabetes like if you have the symptoms or not.
 
I'm sure they do, though I can't quote chapter and verse. I'm basing it on the fact that when I attended the hospital clinic for my diabetes care, my GP surgery were always ringing up asking if they could check me as well, or if there was anything they could do. can't imagine that was just out of pure altruism! ( Cynical? Moi?)
 
Think they get an extra payment for having diabetics on their books. Like Austin the nurses do the annual reviews and found most doctors have very little knowledge of diabetes and how to treat patients with it.
 
Yes the practice as a whole gets an extra allowance for carrying out the checks.
 
If you look on the Diabetes UK website, there's a list of all the Annual Checks every diabetic should have from the NHS. Maybe they don't all apply (I've never needed the pregnancy ones for instance, neither have any diabetic blokes LOL) but I think there are at least 8 that everyone should have.

If you aren't getting them - complain!! They only get the extra dosh on the basis that they DO supply (or facilitate) them all! eg the annual retinal photography is always outsourced - maybe by the Mobile service spending a day actually at your surgery but if in your area it is outsourced to an opticians practice - it is DIFFERENT from 'ordinary' retinal photography offered as a matter of course for anyone having their eyetest at eg Specsavers or Asda opticians, since the photos need to be examined by differently qualified specialists, who have more immediate access to hospital expertise for treatment if it is necessary. They are also responsible within the NHS for sending you a letter after the photos have been examined EVERY time, to advise you of the results, when further action is required, or if not, the time lapse for the next one. That's the one where we all hope the letter says 'No prob - see you in 12 months!'
 
The DUK Website has details of the 15 Healthcare essentials.

I just take a long a copy to my Practice check up (again with a nurse rather than a GP). Last time they told me they were no longer doing the thyroid test. I asked them to do it, and they checked that this was the ruling for T2. The time before they did not want to do the ACR urine test, but that changed as well.

When I have my annual check at the hospital I get all my blood and urine tests done at the Practice and ask for the results to go to my consultant as well as the Practice. That way I get the checks done, the Practice get their points for doing them and the hospital get the results as well. All happy.
 
Hi at my gp surgery an hca does the pulses weight height urine tests etc then you see one of the practice nurses who specialise in diabetes approx a month later to discuss results, look at meds etc. Even when I started on insulin this year gp said to practice diabetes nurse that she wanted me started on insulin then myself and the nurse have been left to it to sort it out. When I wasn't happy with mixed insulin and wanted to change to basal bolus this was decided entirely by the nurse, she updates my perscriptions, wanted strips and lancets on perscription, again decided entirely by the nurse. I never got on with this particular nurse in the past but she has been lovely to me since becoming so Ill diabetes wise and has been very helpful, at the end of the phone if I have any queries, credit where it is due
Jo
 
As health is a devolved issue, payments to GPs for diabetes annial checks, and mamy other things, such as immunisations, depend on where you live in UK; Some payments are per patients, while others are paid only if eg 80% of eligible patients receive a recommended immunisation.
 
Thanks for all your responses. I see the diabetes nurse yearly but do not attend for my COPD check up. Considering I'd waited over four weeks for an appointment regarding another health issue and 2.1/2 weeks for a telephone appointment with the diabetes nurse, I was more than surprised to receive a call out of the blue from my GP asking why I was not attending for the COPD check up which led me to wonder if there was a monetary consideration. Like Robin, I'm obviously a cynic but someone who really needed help could have benefited from that call.
 
The diabetes reviews here changed to the 80% payment threshold last year which is why they rang me 6 times then sent me three inappropriately worded letters and then threatened to stop prescribing medication, and why I submitted a formal complaint. I won't be harassed like that it's unacceptable. The nurse actually said it was because they were chasing people who came for other checks on the basis they'd be more likely to attend. They've changed their process now but if I get that level of harassment next time there will be hell to pay.. My main objection is it doesn't actually help them reach the hard to reach patients it just encourages them to harass the ones who are already engaged. That and it distracts from the activity of actual care whilst they scramble about threatening to withhold medication to get people thought the door. They aren't very good generally to be fair so it's no surprise they're not queueing at the door to have a review, but hey they hit their 80% so everyone's happy. Cynical isn't the word for my views on the ways GP services are organised 🙄
 
For a long while I wouldn't let my surgery do any more than take blood samples and check my BP, they didn't have anyone on staff with proper training and most of the more complex stuff was happening at the D clinic anyway. I'm happier to let them do more now though, because they have a proper DSN who knows her onions. Reviews and retinal screening are still through the clinic rather than the surgery so I reckon I now have the best of both worlds. I get the bloods, toe tickling, etc., done at the surgery then have a clinic appointment two weeks later to discuss the results and any changes required.
 
I told my practice by letter not to bother with the review appointments as they were useless. I got one letter back saying the review and all these test are important. I replied refusing the review appointments (again saying they serve no purpose) and saying that I still wanted all the other stuff (and would be insisting on it if I could be assertive enough).
That was August last year and I haven't heard a thing from them since, even though I'd been suppose to go in in January. I've been in several times since then for other reasons.
 
Robin said:
I'm sure they do, though I can't quote chapter and verse. I'm basing it on the fact that when I attended the hospital clinic for my diabetes care, my GP surgery were always ringing up asking if they could check me as well, or if there was anything they could do. can't imagine that was just out of pure altruism! ( Cynical? Moi?)
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I'm now under diabetic nurse, as I have started weekly injections. My practice nurse insists sge does see me too, for routine blood test as well as hosp. Waste of NHS as far as I'm concerned
 
Jc57 said:
I'm now under diabetic nurse, as I have started weekly injections. My practice nurse insists sge does see me too, for routine blood test as well as hosp. Waste of NHS as far as I'm concerned
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It'll be a more cost effective way for the surgery to get your tests done I'm sure.
My surgery has one lab they use for bloods taken on site and there's another one for when blood is taken by anyone external and the on the surgery uses themselves is considerably cheaper than the other.
And are you sure that the tests are covering exactly the same things?
 
Jc57 said:
I'm now under diabetic nurse, as I have started weekly injections. My practice nurse insists sge does see me too, for routine blood test as well as hosp. Waste of NHS as far as I'm concerned
Click to expand...
Your nurse can insist as much as she likes, it's your choice whether you go or not.
They still get paid for you being on the books regardless.
 
When I turned up to see the nurse, she said "I don't know why you're here."

It took them 9 months to start referring me onto 'Desmond'. In that time both blood tests are in the 30s and I've lost 3 stone. So I don't think I'll bother
 
ColinUK said:
It'll be a more cost effective way for the surgery to get your tests done I'm sure.
My surgery has one lab they use for bloods taken on site and there's another one for when blood is taken by anyone external and the on the surgery uses themselves is considerably cheaper than the other.
And are you sure that the tests are covering exactly the same things?
Click to expand...
My 3 monthly Hb1ac check. Our surgery nurse wants to test me, it then gets sent to local hosp, and give results. It was gp, that sent me to hosp diabetes nurse, in first place. Doesn't make sence for both to do them.
 
Let's just think of this from the GP's point of view rather than yours or mine. If you take any medication to treat your diabetes, presumably you would like your GP to sign the prescriptions. You have no option in this, even if a hospital consultant believes Drug X is ideal to treat you, he'll ask your GP to prescribe it cos he won't 99 times out of 100.

Imagine you are my GP - you would be obliged to look at the test results done which led to the hospital asking you to prescribe Drug X and therefore agree that X is the right one for me, and then make sure on an ongoing basis it wasn't harming me - because when I come to you later and say I now have a PITA, you need to be sure that having a PITA isn't a rare side effect of the drug(s) that you prescribed, before you can decide how to treat the new pain.
 
My Other half sees a couple of consultants and they write to the GP to advise of any medication they want him to have.
 
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