Diabetic foot care report
Download (PDF 6.17 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Suffolk created the 'Feet in focus: A report on patient experience of diabetic foot care services in Suffolk' as they are intent on supporting the diabetes services for the people of Suffolk.
The aims of this project were:
1. To explore the experiences of people with diabetes including the regularity of receiving foot checks and their satisfaction with services that they have accessed
2. To explore diabetic patients knowledge and awareness of their own risk of developing diabetes related foot complications in the future.
The objectives of this project were:
1. To administer a survey to patients with diabetes who access foot care services in Suffolk and to explore their experience of accessing these services
2. To identify how many people with diabetes who access foot care services in Suffolk receive an annual foot check
3. To identify how many people with diabetes who access foot care services in Suffolk are informed of their ‘risk category’ of developing
foot complications in the future.
Healthwatch Suffolk created a survey which anybody living in Suffolk with a known diagnosis of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes was invited to complete anonymously, and there were 536 respondents.
Key findings included:
- Only 7% of respondents stated that they had not had a foot check within the past 12 months.
- Twenty-eight respondents stated that they felt the service that they had accessed could not possibly be improved or that the service did
not need to be improved
- Only 6% of respondents stated that they had active foot complications (of which 4% had Type 1 diabetes and 7% had Type 2 diabetes).
Additionally, only 2% of respondents stated that they had other foot problems associated with their diabetes within the past 5 years.
The report makes 7 very detailed and comprehensive recommendations under the following headings:
1: Effective communication about risk category of developing future foot complications
2: Provision of information
3: Annual foot checks
4: Raise awareness of what services are available for toenail maintenance
5: Reduced waiting times between foot checks
6: Appointment booking process
7: Integrated working between diabetic foot care services
Included is a response (in the form of a foreword) from the Head of Service at the Diabetes and Endocrine Centre, and the Diabetes Research Unit at Ipswich Hospitals NHS Trust