RCP: Diabetes care compromised by pressure on consultants

Thursday, 7 August 2008 12:00 AM

Specialist diabetes services are being compromised because consultants who specialise in diabetes are spending more time supporting acute-general internal medicine services. A survey reported in the latest edition of Clinical Medicine, published by the Royal College of Physicians, found that while 94% of the consultant diabetologists who responded devote time to acute and diabetes services, 69% of consultants in other specialties have dropped out of providing support for acute-general internal medicine.

Authors Peter H Winocour, Charlotte Gosde, Chris Walton, Bridget Turner, Dinesh Nagi and Richard IG Holt say that the decreased time available for specialist diabetes services are leading to cancelled clinics, lack of opportunity for training and lack of exposure to the specialty for doctors in training. Although numbers of diabetes consultants have increased, the amount of time diabetes consultants devote to diabetes has fallen from 40% in 2000 to 26% in 2007. The authors argue that the expansion of the numbers needs to continue to meet the rapidly increasingly prevalence of the disease in the UK.

The August issue of Clinical Medicine also includes an article on the topical issue of physician revalidation in Europe. Authors Sherry Merkur, Elias Mossialos, Morgan Long and Martin Mckee have reviewed methods of revalidation in Europe. They found that definitions and mechanisms of revalidation vary significantly across EU member states, with some countries looking to continuing medical education as means to promote recertification and quality of care, while others also incorporate peer review. These differences, say the authors, have implications for the movement of health professionals within the EU.

Other articles discuss personality disorder - "one of the major unsolved problems of public health", lessons from the heat sickness suffered by British military forces in Iraq, and the use of melatonin in treating sleep disorders. The latest article in the series Music, medicine and the mind examines the superior sensorimotor skills that allow musicians to coordinate sensory and motor information while also processing and analysing what they hear.

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