"Type I Diabetes treatment at Leighton hospital"

I have just returned from attending a retinopathy screening visit at Leighton hospital and have also recently had laboratory tests and attended a diabetes monitoring clinic held at my doctor's surgery. The good news is that my health is fairly good. In fact, according to one doctor, my health is showing almost no signs of 43 years of insulin treated diabetes and considers that I should make a career move into Type I diabetes healthcare management (acting as a role model).

If my health is good then it is because of a lot of personal effort and not because the healthcare received has been of a high standard.

What has been lacking over all these years is helpful advice. I have had to find out what type of insulin is best and, similarly, injection and test equipment. Then of course the need to interpret all the blood test results and adjusting the various dose levels and what blood sugar levels to aim for (during walking, cycling, gardening, sleeping, international business travel).

There is the danger that while medical staff these days may be good at gathering medical data, what they do with it is very unclear. The term 'tick-box exercise' worryingly comes to mind!

My treatment has certainly improved over the years, but this is mainly in areas such as more convenient injection equipment, self management and home diagnostics.

In my opinion, patients are treated far better in private hospitals. But I wonder, why is this? Why should a lack of care and courtesy be excused when originating from someone paid from the public purse?

Finally, I wish the two types of diabetes were not confused. I still have bad memories of attending clinics as a young boy where the rest of the patients were elderly and overweight type II diabetics. As a society we continue with this lack of understanding of lifestyle generated health problems.