New 24/7 online resource provides essential advice and support to local adult diabetic patients
Following the successful launch of the new Community Diabetes Service in the Vale of York, NHS diabetes patients can now turn to their smart phone, tablet or PC for extra advice and support.
The new 'Your Diabetes’ website provides important information, advice and guidance to local diabetic patients, their family and carers and offers the opportunity to join discussions, find out the latest news and link to useful resources.
The website is the result of a collaboration of work by health commissioners from NHS Vale of York CCG, diabetes experts and patients that developed the new NHS service for diabetic adults to access care from specialist staff at their own GP practice.
Dr Rebecca Field, a local GP and a lead clinician in the commissioning of the new service and website said: "The support and knowledge of local diabetic patients has been invaluable and helped the CCG and specialist staff at York Hospital to provide this important online resource and the new way of providing care.
"My patients, colleagues and I are delighted with the advice and support we have received from the community diabetes team. We are now able to discuss more complex patients, offer a joint clinic in the surgery with a specialist nurse for the and further developed our skills as a result of the new way of working.
"People live with diabetes 24 hours a day so it was important that we developed an innovative and locally owned way to get essential information and advice to help people with diabetes to manage their own condition, whilst enhancing the support and education that is currently available.”
Vijay Jayagopal, Consultant in Diabetes at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The new website provides an opportunity for our local diabetes community to find relevant health information and news about local events and services.
Living with diabetes can sometimes feel quite lonely and having the opportunity to discuss issues with other people with diabetes can help. With this in mind the website features an online forum which we hope will provide a space where people can discuss issues and share experiences with other local people who have the same condition.
The website is managed by the Community Diabetes Team and will be updated regularly so please visit regularly to keep in touch.”
The 'Your Diabetes' website is available at: www.yourdiabetes.org.uk
