An Expert Advisory Group on Diabetes was recently established by the HSE and is currently drawing up standards of care for diabetes. This process will take account of the Department of Health and Children's document ‘ Diabetes: Prevention and Model for Patient Care’. The group has identified as one of its priorities the development of an Integrated Care Model for the treatment of diabetes. This model will focus on the joint participation of hospital consultants and general practitioners in the planned delivery of care for patients. The Expert Advisory Group has also identified the other areas of diabetes care that need priority attention such as retinopathy screening, paediatric diabetes, patient education and empowerment, and podiatry. It should be noted that the diabetic retinopathy screening to prevent eye diseases in diabetes sufferers is currently being rolled out in the Western region and in North Dublin.
In addition, my Department and the HSE are currently finalising a series of measures to manage the health impacts of chronic disease generally in the population. These measures include:—
The development of a comprehensive, integrated chronic disease policy framework which will view chronic disease as a continuum with "upstream" action on the avoidable cause of disease, disability and premature death (including in particular inter-sectoral action to address the wider determinants of health) as well as "downstream" action to improve the health and quality of life of those already suffering from the condition;
Comprehensive patient registration systems;
The development of shared care models for each condition under a disease management programme;
The development and use of evidence-based clinical guidelines for each condition;
A Self-Care Management Programme; and
Quality assurance and evaluation Protocols.