Podiatric care for renal patients
Q. Does anyone have experience of working with people with renal complications and diabetes as inpatients? We could be in a position to fund someone for such a specialist role. My local consultants tell me that about 20% of their renal patients have diabetes. I hope that many of these people are picked up by the primary care and community podiatrists as they are a high-risk group. Before I open the flood gates, has anyone found a large proportion of such people who have not been picked up in this way? Is there any value in attending their outpatient clinics? Has anyone done any audits of the benefit of attending the clinics? The reason I ask is that my local consultants feel that this group is not adequately catered for because of the increased time they stay on a renal ward. Therefore, their appointments with other specialisms are often neglected.
Scott Cawley, Lead Specialist Podiatrist, Cardiff
A. In our area joint pre-dialysis clinics are about to be set up and podiatry have been invited to participate. The diabetes specialist nurse who will be participating in the clinics is to go on ward rounds to improve her ‘renal skills’ and she has agreed to do a survey of all the patients she sees so we can find out who already recieves podiatry, who doesn’t, and what foot problems they have in order to give us an idea of how many patients we may not be seeing.
Name and address supplied
Practice-based commissioning
Q. I am looking into practice-based commissioning and have come across an example from Newcastle upon Tyne where two practice nurses at Lane End Sugery have been trained by a podiatrist to carry out podiatry services as part of the routine diabetes review or on request for people that present with acute symptoms. My question is, has anyone else, for example an FDUK member, been involved or can anyone clarify what the training programme for the prcatice nurses encompassed?
Maria Mousley, Consultant Podiatrist in Diabetes and Tissue Viability, Northampton
Announcement from the Diabetes UK Conference professional disciplines meeting 2006
The following were the three priorities for Diabetes UK to work on over 2006, as chosen and subsequently voted on by the 60–70 podiatrists who attended the professional disciplines session at the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference in March 2006 that I chaired.
- Have a role in defining and recommending the competencies of the modern workforce, concentrating on the care of people with diabetes and foot problems.
- Make recommendations regarding minimum standards of care for people with diabetes and foot problems (including awareness for patients on what to expect).
- Produce and facilitate guidelines on care pathways between primary and secondary care for people with diabetes and foot issues.
Martin Fox, Clinical Lead Podiatrist, Tameside and Glossop PCT, and Secretary of FDUK
