Use extended roles for diabetes care for children
Community pharmacists could use their extended roles to help fill a gap in services for children with diabetes, it was suggested last week, ahead of World Diabetes Day on 14 November.
They could carry out periodic medicines use reviews or could offer child
diabetes testing in the pharmacy if appropriate.
The suggestions come from Wakefield community pharmacist Irene Gummerson,
who helped compile Royal Pharmaceutical Society practice guidance on
diabetes for pharmacists. And they follow publication
of a report earlier
this month by Diabetes UK that revealed that children with diabetes are
not getting the care they deserve because of lack of investment in services
and over-stretched staff (see Panel below).
Research findings
According to research in the report, “Your
local care — a
survey of diabetes care provided by primary care trusts in England”,
only 25 per cent of PCTs have made paediatric diabetes services
development a priority in their local plans.
The report highlights that only half of PCTs (54 per cent) provide
psychological support for children with diabetes; half do not have
proper systems in place to transfer children to adult services
when they are older; and 37 per cent said there were no specific
funds for diabetic care development in 2005. |
Mrs Gummerson said it was crucial
that community pharmacists interested in becoming involved in diabetes
care should liaise with doctors and
nurses to ensure all clinicians work to the same protocols.
She suggested that pharmacists working under the new contract in England
and Wales could provide medicines use reviews (MURs) as an advanced service
as well as signposting and support for self-care as an
essential service.
She said: “The MUR can improve a child’s, and carer’s,
knowledge, compliance and use of medicines and diabetes devices. Understanding
how the child is actually using the medicine, identifying problems and
helping with their resolution, or signposting to another professional,
is the core purpose of the MUR.”
She added: “Another way of helping children and their carers would
be to offer a blood glucose meter accuracy check, and promote best use
of results. Depending on local circumstances, this could be a free service
or a funded enhanced service.” |
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