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Imagine_David 9 months, 1 week ago.
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I have used trial and error as well as word of mouth
Both have ended up being successful.for some:recommendation from a trusted HCP who is also a colleague. & for others, referral by a trusted GP.
Trouble is how do you find a trusted GP? I’ve never thought about writing a letter, I think I might try that.
I recently read an article on practice nurse that was in the magazine Diabetes Connect Autumn 2014.
A practice nurse is a qualified registered nurse working within a GP surgery, clinic, medical centre. The practice nurse will work with you and your GP to plan and manage your diabetes care needs, coordinate allied health services and establish a recall system to remind you about your regular health checks as recommended by the diabetes annual cycle of care.
Practice nurses mostly look after people with type 2 diabetes and will work with you on your care plan goals, diet, lifestyle choices and blood glucose level readings. As part of your annual cycle of care, the nurse will review your weight measures and blood test, perform foot checks, review medications, assess if in-home support is required and identify any gaps in knowledge. They will then feed this information on to your GP.
As soon as your appointment with the practice nurse is finished you will go in to see the GP to discuss your ongoing treatment plan. All visits to a practice nurse are covered by Medicare, however some practices may charge a gap to see your GP which may include the time taken to see the practice nurse. They may have additional resources to give to you or direct you to further information and services elsewhere.
This may be the answer on how to find a good GP. We can contact a medical centre, clinic and GP surgery and find out if they have a practice nurse working with them. In this instance we will have the assistance of the practice nurse and a DR to manage our diabetes. I will try this option and let you know of the outcome.
More information on practice nurse is available at http://www.asn.au and in the Diabetes Connect magazine
Micheline, thank you for sharing this article.
Its funny, only minutes ago i was reading:
From this months “Endocrinology Update” comes this article by Michael Woodhead: “Diabetes incentives for GPs have produced dismal results and should be replaced with performance indicators based on outcomes rather than just process measures, says a leading Liberal MP.
The current system of Practice Incentive Payments (PIP) has failed to encourage GPs to get involved in multidisciplinary care for their diabetes patients, Dr Andrew Southcott, a former parliamentary secretary in primary care told the House of Representatives earlier this month.
Dr Southcott said that less than half of GP practices participated in the PIP Diabetes program and only about a quarter of patients with diabetes received a diabetes annual cycle of care, which is promoted by the program.
He said a new system was needed because less than half of Australians with diabetes were having eye examinations, and only 12% have consulted a chiropodist in the last year.“When you look at those results they are pretty dismal … We need to look at introducing a genuine quality measure into Medicare and into PIP,” he said.
Dr Southcott said the current PIP Diabetes program was too focused on encouraging a process without measuring results. It gives practices an outcome payment of $20 when 50% of patients have completed a cycle of care and a service incentive payment (SIP) of $40 per patient for each cycle completed.
Although the PIP incentive involved the measuring HbA1c, it was not based on achieving a target, as is the case with the UK’s Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), he noted.
The UK system rewards GPs for achieving clinical targets for BP, lipids and HbA1c and also for measures such as having an ACE inhibitor and a albumin:creatinine ratio test. Incentives are also dependant on patients having eye and foot checks and flu vaccinations.
“In Australia we could use the existing framework of the practice incentive payment to reward GPs on the level of diabetic control they achieve. It would be a first step but it would be a genuine quality measure, and having a true measurable quality objective would be a good way to make Medicare even better,” he said. What do you think?
As a diabetes educator (not a practice nurse) I would always suggest that you see a diabetes educator over a practice nurse to get skills and knowledge in the first fw years of diabetes. Once you are confident that you have the knowledge and experience to self manage with safety and efficiency than using the practice nurses would be of some benefit. Beware, practice nurses are NOT specialised in diabetes and often have very little training in the field of diabetes management and education.
Up until 1998 I had been nursing for 20+ years, not working in the flied of diabetes. It was only once I did a University course and became a specialist in the area of diabetes education and management did I realise the complexities of diabetes.
Its important to understand the roles of your health care team, and who is available to you as a part of the Medicare system, and your local (state health) system.
http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/living-with-diabetes-2/diabetes-health-professionals/
Kind Regards,
David
Diabetes Educator @ Diabetes Counselling Online-
This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by Imagine_David.
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