Type 2 (non-insulin requiring) diabetes affects over 4 million people in the UK, and can lead to premature death from heart disease and stroke, kidney failure requiring transplantation, and blindness due to diabetic retinopathy. Controlling the condition as effectively as possible is crucial in preventing complications, and GPs have a critical role in this.

To understand how GPs can support diabetic patients more effectively, Dr Hajira Dambha-Miller and colleagues from the University of Cambridge interviewed a number of long-term diabetics to find out what aspects of care they most valued.

It was clear that face-to-face contact, more time with their GPs, and continuity of care with them were most highly valued. It is paradoxical that, as pressures on the NHS rise, these are the very characteristics of general practice that are most under threat. If the drive towards more cost-effective medicine lead to less personalised healthcare, it may turn out to be a false economy.

Read the paper

Hajira Dambha-Miller, Barbora Silarova, Greg Irving, Ann Louise Kinmonth and Simon J Griffin: Patients’ views on interactions with practitioners for type 2 diabetes: a longitudinal qualitative study in primary care over 10 years.  British Journal of General Practice, Online First, 2017

 

Media queries: Lucy Lloyd

Image: Dr Jon Ferdinand for PCU