Diabetes Resources

Contributing to diabetes care

FOR PHARMACISTS

• Prevention
• Diet and Lifestyle
• Physical Activity
• Blood Pressure
• Cholesterol
• Alcohol Screening
• Smoking Cessation
• Identification and Diagnosis
• Initial Support
• Diet and Lifestyle Management
• Ongoing Care and Preventing or Delaying Complications

SIGNPOSTING FOR PATIENTS

• Diet and Lifestyle
• Blood Pressure
• Stop Smoking
• Physical Activity
• Alcohol
• Diabetes

FURTHER READING

• Training and Resources to Help Your Clinical Practice
• Policies
• Reports
• Clinical Guidelines, Pathways and Frameworks
• Toolkits
• Competency Frameworks
• Audits
• Research and Analysis
• Setting Up a Local Service
• Examples of Pharmacy-Based Diabetes Service

For Pharmacists

Prevention

Identify people at risk of developing diabetes (and other vascular conditions). 

Offer lifestyle advice and make appropriate interventions.

Diet and lifestyle

• Public Health England: Healthy eating
• Community pharmacy: public health interventions
• NICE Community pharmacies: promoting health and wellbeing

Physical activity

• Department of Health and Social Care UK physical activity guidelines
• General practice physical activity questionnaire (GPPAQ)
• NICE Physical activity: brief advice for adults in primary care 
• Public Health England Health matters: public health issues
• Public Health England: Physical activity: applying All Our Health
• Public health England Health Matters: Your adult physical activity toolkit

Blood pressure

• Public Health England High blood pressure: plan and deliver effective services and treatment
• Public Health England Health matters: combating high blood pressure
• The British and Irish Hypertension Society

Cholesterol

• RPS cholesterol testing guide

Alcohol screening

• Public Health England Alcohol use screening tests

Smoking cessation

• RPS smoking cessation guide
• NHS England Smoking cessation resources
• CKS Smoking cessation
• London clinical senate

Identification and diagnosis

Proactively identify people with diabetes within the community setting. Refer appropriately to the GP or other healthcare professionals. Early diagnosis of diabetes can significantly reduce the risk of developing complications.

• RPS Diagnostic testing and screening services guide
• NHS health checks
• NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme
• Know Your Risk tool
• CKS Diabetes - type 2
• Diabetes UK Diagnostic criteria for diabetes

Initial Support

Support people with diabetes in the early stages of taking a new course of medicines. Help improve medicines adherence.

• Diabetes UK Explaining diabetes type 2 to patients
• CKS Diabetes - type 2
• RPS Polypharmacy Guide
• Diabetes education: knowing more about your condition
• Medicines adherence guide
• Medicines optimisation guide 
• Counselling patients on medicines guide
• How to use the BNF
• electronic Medicines Compendium
• Medication history guide
• Medication review guide

Diet and lifestyle management

See Prevention section above

Ongoing care and preventing or delaying complications

Support people with diabetes to monitor and manage their long-term condition. Help appropriately manage complications and the risk factors for complications e.g. renal complications.

• CKS Diabetes - type 2
• Diabetes UK Ramadan and diabetes
• The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the Diabetes and Ramadan (DAR) International Alliance Diabetes and Ramadan: Practical Guidelines
• Think Kidneys
• Diabetes UK Improving diabetes footcare
• NICE Foot care for people with diabetes overview

Signposting for patients

Diet and lifestyle

• NHS Live Well
• NHS Inform Healthy living

Blood pressure

• NHS High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Blood pressure UK

Stop smoking

• NHS Stop smoking treatments
• NHS Smoke free

Physical activity

• NHS Live Well exercise

Alcohol

• NHS Live Well Alcohol support
• Drinkaware

Diabetes

• Diabetes UK Diabetes education & information for your patients
• NHS Diabetes
• Diabetes UK
• NHS inform (Scotland)
• My Diabetes My Way (Scotland)
• South London Diabetes Network leaflets
• NHS Getting diagnosed- Type 2 diabetes
• Diabetes UK Annual diabetes checks
• Diabetes UK Diabetes treatments
• Diabetes UK Complications of diabetes
• NHS How to look after your feet if you have diabetes
• Diabetes UK Driving and diabetes
• NHS Apps Library - Find an app to help you manage and improve your health 
• Diabetes UK Treating your diabetes
• Diabetes UK Diabetes and checking your blood sugars

Further reading

Training and resources to help your clinical practice

• Diabetes UK Resources to improve your clinical practice
• Shared practice in diabetes care
• Improving inpatient care for people with diabetes
• e-LfH Diabetic Foot Screening - Interactive Assessment programme
• Foot Risk Awareness and Management Education (FRAME) Diabetes Foot Screening - e-learning resource
• NICE Training non-podiatrists to assess foot risk as part of an integrated foot service for people with diabetes
• CPPE - Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education
• Diabetes Frail
• Supporting people using insulin pens

Policies

• Long term conditions policy

Reports

• Making a difference for people with LTCs

Clinical guidelines, pathways and frameworks

• NICE Diabetes
• NICE Type 2 diabetes: prevention in people at high risk
• SIGN Management of Diabetes
• NHS England Diabetes
• Joint British Diabetes Societies (JBDS) for Inpatient Care group guidelines
• Diabetes Frail guidelines
• A Healthier Future: type 2 Diabetes prevention, early detection and intervention: framework
• NHS Rightcare pathway for diabetes

Toolkits

• Allied Health Professional (AHP) Diabetes toolkit
• Diabetes UK Making hospitals safe for people with diabetes report
• RCGP Quality Improvement Toolkit for Diabetes Care

Competency frameworks

• An Integrated Career and Competency Framework for Pharmacists in Diabetes
• Prescribing Competency Framework

Audits

• NHS Digital National Diabetes Core Audit (NDA)
• National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA)
• National Pregnancy in Diabetes (NPID) Audit
• National Diabetes Footcare Audit (NDFA)
• National Diabetes Transtion Audit (NDTA)

Research and analysis

• Public Health England Diabetes prevalence estimates for local populations
• Public Health England Diabetes outcomes versus expenditure (DOVE) in local populations
• Public Health England Cardiovascular disease data and analysis: guide for health professionals

Setting up a local service

• Checklist for the development, preparation and approval of a pharmacy-based diabetes service business case (some sections in this document contain out of date terminology; however, you may still find the information useful)
• Checklist for providing a pharmacy-based diabetes service
• Information on Locally Commissioned Services (England) including guidance on development of local services, template service specifications and resources can be found on the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) website.

Examples of pharmacy-based diabetes services

• PSNC Service database
• Diabetes.org.uk. (2019). A pharmacist led initiative to support insulin self-administration [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].
• Pharmaceutical Journal. (2013). Evolution of pharmacist prescriber involvement in a diabetes clinic [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019]. Or Clinical Pharmacist, Vol. 5, p26 | DOI: 10.1211/CP.2013.11116056
• NHS England (2019). Transforming elective care services diabetes England.nhs.uk [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].
• The Pharmaceutical Journal, June 2001 URI: 20004450 Pharmaceutical Journal. (2019). What pharmacists can do for diabetes [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].
• Dashora, U., Sampson, M., Castro, E., Stanisstreet, D., Jones, C. and Hillson, R. (2019). The best joint pharmacy and diabetes team initiative to improve insulin and prescribing safety in hospital Bjd-abcd.com. [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].
• The Pharmaceutical Journal, 4/11 January 2014, Vol 292, No 7791/2, p9 | DOI: 10.1211/PJ.2014.11132342