Diabetes referral success

Following a campaign to ‘Think Hypo-Think Referral’, there has been a 400% increase in primary care hypoglycaemia referrals in north Norfolk, Norwich and Waveney. The aim of these referrals is to help patients with diabetes get improved medical support to manage their condition.

When patients are not taken to hospital after a ‘hypo’, staff have been directly contacting GPs (in and out-of-hours) and diabetes specialist nurses to inform them of the hypoglycaemic episode.

Research Paramedic Larissa said: “The research support services team would like to thank staff who have really got on board with this project to improve care to these patients. We’d like to appeal to you all to continue the good work as the SPOC diabetes patient educational pathway rolls out across the Trust.”

This project was part of a national quality improvement (IMPACT ASCQI) research study and the early results were shared at this month's EMS Research Forum conference in Nottingham – you can download the supporting poster from the Need to Know site.

You can also look at the referral information leaflet, the results of the survey carried out with staff last year, and a diagram summarising perceived barriers to patient referrals.