Only a third of people registered with diabetes are receiving all the recommended diabetes care pathways, national diabetes audit (NDA) data show.
The audit of 656,000 patient records in the year 2005–2006 has recommended that PCTs, clinicians and commissioners review the data to ensure that people with diabetes, especially those young and old, receive the right level of diabetes care.
Other data show less people with diabetes are experiencing strokes and myocardial infarctions compared with the NDA data of 2004.
Some 60% of people with diabetes achieved the recommended HbA1c measurements and 73% achieved the NICE guideline of cholesterol lower than 5 mmol/l.
The NDA recommend that children and young people with HbA1c levels above 9.5% are offered additional support in order to minimise their risk of long-term complications.
Simon Eaton, consultant diabetologist, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It is vital that clinicians engage with making sense of all the diabetes information available. The NDA is a massive piece of this puzzle, with its focus on crucial clinical outcomes.”
