26.10.15
Sheffield FT cuts number of diabetes-related amputations in half despite national inertia
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has bagged a national award for cutting its diabetes-related amputation rates by nearly half.
A specialist team at the hospital took home the ‘Best Initiative in Specialised Services’ prize at the Quality in Care Diabetes awards, created to recognise and reward good practice in diabetes management, education and patient care.
The award was a result of a 12-month analysis of the root cause of all amputations, resulting in several different initiatives being rolled out to improve care outcomes and pathways.
These initiatives included setting up a diabetes foot hotline to provide community healthcare workers quick access to advice and support from hospital-based consultant diabetologists.
This drove up both the access to training for primary care screeners and the level of education and information available to patients – who can now be seen by a specialist team immediately after a problem arises.
Dr Rajiv Gandhi, consultant in diabetes at the city’s foundation trust, said: “This award is a testament to the hard work of the Sheffield Diabetes Foot Team, of whom we should be tremendously proud. People with diabetes, who develop problems with their feet, need to be seen rapidly by the specialist foot team if we are to avoid serious complications like amputations.
“Working closely together across hospital and community settings, and putting the patient at the centre of the care we deliver, has been the key to the success we have achieved.”
The new care pathway was responsible for slashing major amputation rates by almost 50% compared to numbers from 2009.
Commenting on the achievement, Gandhi said: “Being able to reduce amputation rates by almost 50% in such a short period, particularly at a time when national rates have remained static, is a stunning achievement that is having a tangible positive impact on the lives of people with diabetes in Sheffield.”
But the positive news contrasts with recent findings from the National Audit Office showing that performance by the Department of Health, its arm’s-length bodies at the NHS in achieving treatment standards that help minimise the risk of diabetes patients developing future complications has stalled.
The auditor found that progress has been made in reducing the extra risk of death for people with diabetes, but there are very few newly-diagnosed diabetes patients recorded as attending structured education that could help them manage their condition.
And commenting on the findings, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Meg Hillier MP, also noted that more than two-thirds of the £5.6bn annual NHS cash spent on diabetes is due to complications such as amputations. A total of 135 people every week in England have an amputation as a result of diabetes, for example.