Darlington memorial hospital has started a trial of a pharmacist-led diabetes clinic.
Pharmacists will work according to a protocol based on British Diabetic Association guidelines.
The trial will compare diabetic control by pharmacists of 100 randomly selected patients with a control group of patients looked after by nurses at the hospital's existing diabetes clinic. Patients to be included in the study will all have had type II diabetes for at least a year and will have poor control of their blood sugar levels along with either hyperlipidaemia or hypertension.
Dr Labib Tadros (clinical lead pharmacist, Darlington memorial hospital) told The Journal on December 29 that although an ideal care model for diabetes patients had yet to be devised, it was clear that structured care with input from members of a multidisciplinary team was necessary.
Evidence from the United States of America suggested that disease management models could provide effective management at relatively low cost, Dr Tadros said. These models could provide routine surveillance of large numbers of people, leaving medical and nursing staff to deal with new, or problem, cases.
He added that, to his knowledge, there had been no formal examination of the potential role of pharmacists in diabetes clinics, but that in other clinical areas where close monitoring of drug treatment was required, pharmacist-led clinics had been successful.
Dr Tadros said that he wanted to share his protocols with any other hospital that wanted to start pharmacist-led diabetes clinics. He can be contacted at Darlington memorial hospital on 01325 380100, bleep 3955).