A recent care report issued by a “healthwatch” organisation has laid out areas where support for people with diabetes could be improved.

The Healthwatch Harrow Diabetes Care Report 2018 launched by Enterprise Wellness Ltd has highlighted where service improvements are needed after reviewing 125 people in Harrow.

The care report suggested 78% of people in Harrow with diabetes “understand” the signs and symptoms of the condition, and that 73% knew how to access support but that some had difficulty finding an appointment with a specialist nurse.

Of the 125 cases, 14 people had type one diabetes, 70 had type two and 21 were carers. They were reviewed between November 2016 and March 2017 and 51% of the respondents were of Asian, Indian, Sinhalese, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Afghan or Bangladeshi communities.     

The care report launch, which happened in May this year, was attended by NHS Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), representatives from Diabetes UK and North West London CCGs and community focus groups.      

They found people in Harrow experienced long waiting times, issues getting appointments and, at times, poor “communication and attitude” from staff.     

They also found a lack of useful information for people for whom English is not their first language.

Healthwatch Harrow suggested the following improvements for Harrow CCG Diabetes Strategy Implementation Group:

  • Diabetes specialist nurses to be attached to every GP practice.
  • Effective shared learnings and feedback on good practice across all key stakeholders around the care of people with diabetes and those at risk of diabetes.
  • Development of a more holistic and integrated service provision, ensuring sufficient expertise and flexibility in the service provided for diabetic patients. For example, providing evenings and weekends appointments.
  • Raise awareness of and access to community-based diabetes awareness sessions to enable people with diabetes to understand what is available and how to access it.
  • Improve provision of information in a greater number of languages particularly for the various black and ethnic minority community groups.
  • Raise awareness of the local plans of the Diabetes Transformation Programme with local Harrow residents. 

Mina Kakaiya, manager of Healthwatch Harrow, said: “Harrow has one of the highest rates of type two diabetes in the country and the third highest rate of diabetes in the UK, with the prevalence of diabetes in Harrow estimated to increase by 45% by 2030.  

“In view of this estimated increase in the next decade, the potential impact of the condition, diagnosis, treatment and on-going care of diabetes patients in Harrow is key. 

“As well as the concerns raised by people with diabetes who took part in the research, we would like to see the Harrow CCG Diabetes Strategy Implementation Group with other local organisations take forward our key recommendations. 

“This will help to address some of the disparities highlighted in our report and improve the service provided for people with diabetes in Harrow. We would like every patient, whatever their background and wherever they live in the borough, to have easier access to improved diabetes care.”

Dr Amol Kelshiker, chair of Harrow CCG said: “We are constantly listening to people with diabetes to help shape and improve health services in the borough. We recognise that there are areas of diabetes care that require improvement, and our dedicated Diabetes Transformation Programme is focused on addressing this. We are pleased that a high proportion of people with diabetes in Harrow understand the signs and symptoms of their condition but want to improve these numbers even further in the future.”

To find out more about Healthwatch Harrow visit http://www.healthwatchharrow.co.uk/