"'Totally unsupported' at Laurel Bank surgery"

Dear Fire6 We are sorry you have felt unsupported with your diagnosis of diabetes. Please contact the practice to come in to discuss your concerns with your doctor or one of our Practice Nurses. Laurel Bank Surgery offer all their diabetic patients continued care with their own GP, an annual review with the Practice Nurse, including blood and urine tests, and interim reviews during the year, dependent on the severity of their illness. Newly diagnosed diabetics and those who have difficulty in controlling their blood sugar are offered one to one appointments with the Nurse who agrees a Personal Management Plan with the patient and educates the patient over a number of weeks. We also have a patient library which patients are free to browse and borrow books. We have provided diabetic education since May 2006 in the form of an X-pert Diabetes 6 week course which helps all our diabetic patients to better understand their illness and learn how to look after their health as part of their everyday life. Our diabetic patients are invited to attend these courses which are run throughout the year, either during the afternoon or in the evening. As part of a review of this service we asked our patients how they felt about the course and their replies, which were unanimously positive, were included in our newsletter in the Autumn of 2007 and also in the PCT Annual Report in April 2008. Full details of our Expert course, together with information about all our services can be found on our website at http://malpassurgery.co.uk. We always encourage our patients to give feedback about all the services we offer, both positive and negative, as feedback is an important means of monitoring and maintaining our standards.