Conclusion
This course covered the annual review for people with diabetes. You have seen that even if someone feels they are in good health, they may still have risk factors that could increase the chances of getting diabetes-related complications. It is important to create a plan, which is agreed between the person with diabetes and the health professional, to show what actions need to be taken to reduce risk factors or maintain low risk.
The diabetes annual review is an opportunity to check for factors that will increase a person's risk of developing diabetes complications, so they can address them before damage occurs. The idea is very much that ‘prevention is better than cure’. It is also an opportunity for the person with diabetes to get feedback on how well they are doing (and recognition if they are struggling with aspects of their condition).
Every person with diabetes must have an annual diabetes review. It can be delivered at the hospital diabetes clinic, or for most people, by their local GP and practice nurse. The person with diabetes should not be a passive element in the process: they are supplying much of the information from their own monitoring and experience of living with the condition. They should have the results of the tests performed on them, and be given explanations about their meaning. They then have the information about how well they are managing their diabetes, and are able to make choices about any changes they may wish to make about their management.
Studying this course will have built on your knowledge of diabetes and diabetes care systems, and the personal impact of having diabetes, as well as helped you to think about underlying risk factors for complications.