Many patients with diabetes are at risk of blindness, amputation and even death because so few of them attend courses about how to manage their condition, a leading charity has warned.Wah! Wah! The Terrible Toree Cutz are starving us of resources!
But wait. Maybe not:
Diabetes UK said the failure of many local NHS organisations around England was a key reason for the tiny number of patients attending courses.
The charity discovered last November that about a third of GP-led clinical commissioning groups – 72 out of the 208 that responded to a freedom of information request – did not commission diabetes courses, even though all CCGs are meant to do so.Oops!
Patients who attend can benefit by, for example, losing weight, lowering their cholesterol or blood-sugar level or reducing their blood pressure.
Anecdotal evidence from patients suggests that many health professionals do not highlight the importance of participating in education courses to newly diagnosed patients, and that often when classes are laid on, they are at times that many people find inconvenient.But timers that GPs find immensely convenient, I'll bet.
5 comments:
You need to attend a course to know that lowering your weight might help you cope with Diabetes? (Or even that raising your weight might have caused the Diabetes in the first place?
Srsly? There are people that ignorant? How likely is is that they will take any notice of the course, I wonder. Probably they'll be popping out for a fag every ten minutes or so.
I have not checked the assets of the charity, but this is lobbying rather than the useful charitable purpose of supporting people with diabetes.
In order to help people, the charity needs to be told to get on with the job it has identified, or it will have its assets confiscated and given to the NHS to fund it.
Get the roof of the monastery.
http://www.charitytimes.com/ct/diabetes-uk-campaign-ruled-to-have-breached-fundraising-code.php
For type 1 diabetics who have to inject insulin it is quite a tricky balancing act to keep blood glucose levels from going either too high or too low. When I was initially diagnosed I was thought to be type 1 and had a session with a nutritionist who taught me how to calculate how much carbohydrate was in my food so that I could adjust my insulin doses to match. This is quite a complicated business, for instance exercising reduces glucose levels, and there is a fair amount of guesswork involved. I was offered a week long course to learn how to do this more precisely but I didn't need it because I was later re-diagnosed as type 2.
Really, dealing with type 2 diabetes is in your own hands. With sensible diet and plenty of exercise (I have just done a half ironman), I have reduced my contact with the health service to a minimum.
Stonyground
I have in the past been critical of Diabetes UK. One of their talking heads was once on the BBC breakfast news claiming that diabetics were not being given enough information about controlling their condition. From my experience this is not just untrue it is the opposite of the truth. When I was diagnosed I was bombarded with leaflets about diet, exercise, feet, alcohol, you name it. I had meetings with specialists all giving me advice. I was given the number of a helpline which I sometimes made use of and always received helpful advice. Even if your local NHS trust isn't as helpful as mine was, there are numerous books available. The BBC apparently employs a large number of journalists. Maybe just one of them could have been asked to do a little journalism and do a check in case Diabetes UK was just another fake charity inventing non existent problems in order to claim more tax payers' money.
On the other hand, there were rules restricting driving for type 1 diabetics that were pretty ludicrous and appeared to have been designed by someone with no understanding of the condition and, it would appear, no common sense either. Diabetes UK has successfully campaigned for the rules to be changed.
Stonyground
"Srsly? There are people that ignorant?"
Thousands of them.
"...this is lobbying rather than the useful charitable purpose of supporting people with diabetes. "
'Useful charitable purpose' is, it seems, a very elastic term.
"Really, dealing with type 2 diabetes is in your own hands. "
Something the NHS seems reluctant to acknowledge.
"The BBC apparently employs a large number of journalists. Maybe just one of them could have been asked to do a little journalism and do a check..."
Heh! Yeah. That'll be the day.
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