Lambeth Diabetes Intermediate Care Team

Transcription

1 Lambeth Diabetes Intermediate Care Team Lambeth Community Diabetes Clinics information for patients If your doctor or nurse decide that you don t need to be seen in hospital they will refer you to one of the Lambeth Community Diabetes Clinics. The community clinics offer the same service that you would receive at the hospital but are provided in a location closer to where you live. The clinics are provided at Gracefield Gardens in Streatham, Springfield Medical Centre in Stockwell and Akerman Health Centre in Brixton. The team providing care in the community diabetes clinics include a diabetes consultant, GP specialists, diabetes nurses and dieticians. This leaflet aims to provide you with the information you will need when planning your appointment at the community clinic.

2 When and where are the Community Diabetes Clinics held? Gracefield Gardens Health and Social Care Centre 2-8 Gracefield Gardens, Streatham, London, SW16 2ST Every Tuesday morning between 8.30am and 12pm Gracefield Gardens is located just off Streatham High Road. It is not within the congestion charging zone and there is some non-metered parking for cars on the streets near to the clinic. Bus routes 118, 319, 250, 50, 109, 159 and 57 Springfield Medical Centre, 110 Union Road, London, SW8 2SH Every Wednesday morning between 8.30pm and 12pm Springfield Medical Centre is best approached from Wandsworth Road. It is not within the congestion charging zone and there is metered parking on streets near to the centre. Bus routes 77, 87, 50, 155, P5, 345 and 322

3 Akerman Health Centre, 60 Patmos Road, London, SW9 6AF Every other week: Friday mornings between 8.30am and 12pm Monday afternoons between 1.30pm and 4.30pm There is very limited street parking close to Akerman Health Centre. The centre is not within the congestion charging zone. Buses 185, 436, 36 and P5 stop nearby. How will I be notified about my appointment? After the hospital clinic or your GP informs us that you need a community clinic appointment we will send an appointment to you in the post. If you have told your doctor that you would rather receive an appointment by we will your appointment information. We will also telephone you or text you to remind you about your appointment a few days before you are due to be seen. What will happen at the appointment at the community diabetes clinic? When you arrive at the appointment you will be called by our healthcare assistant who will check your weight and height, measure your blood pressure, check a urine sample and check a finger-prick blood test. If this is your first visit to the clinic you will then be seen by our dietician who will talk to you about what you are eating and advise you on whether your diet needs to change to improve your diabetes control.

4 Most people coming to the clinic will then be seen by a diabetes doctor, diabetes specialist nurse or both. The doctor or nurse will ask you questions about your diabetes and other medical problems. They would also like to hear from you what you would like to achieve during your consultation. It would be helpful if you could bring a list of your current medications with you. In addition, if your are testing your blood glucose levels at home please bring along your results diary for us to see. Most people can expect to be at the clinic for 2 hours. What will happen after my appointment at the community clinic? Many people coming to the clinic will only need to be seen once. Having agreed a management plan with you we will write to your GP to tell them what has been decided. Your GP will then make any treatment changes and monitor your diabetes at the surgery. For people with more complicated problems we will arrange to see you again for a follow-up appointment. This will either be at the community clinic or sometimes one of our team will come to see you at your GP surgery. If, when we see you we feel that your ongoing care should be at the hospital diabetes clinic we will arrange this for you. Self managent for people with type 2 diabetes Most of the care provided to people with diabetes is care that they give to themselves. So it is really important that we provide you with the knowledge and skills to manage your diabetes. Our team runs a self management course called DESMOND for people with type 2 diabetes. This is run at a variety of locations in Lambeth. If you haven t been to a DESMOND course before or would like to go to a refresher course we will arrange this for you.

5 How to contact us: If you have any questions about your appointment at the community diabetes clinic you can telephone or us. You can use the same contacts to cancel or change your appointment. Telephone This service is provided by Crowndale Medical Centre on behalf of NHS Lambeth CCG.