Toolkit for assessing and improving diabetes care

The 'Diabetes commissioning toolkit', developed by the Department of Health in conjunction with diabetes charities and professional bodies, has been produced to help service commissioners in PCTs and practices take a strategic approach to improving quality of care and making the best use of available resources.

The first section of the toolkit provides advice on how to carry out a health needs assessment to help commissioners benchmark current services and prioritise areas for improvement.

It suggests questions to ask to build a picture of local need, for example:

• how common is diabetes locally?
• what are the risk factors and the health inequalities?
• how many diabetes related hospitalisations were there in the last year?

Section two outlines the core elements of high quality diabetes care, pointing to relevant quality markers such as NSF standards and NICE guidelines.

It also suggests key outcomes that commissioners might want to specify as part of the service provider’s contract. For example, key outcomes in relation to children and young people would include improved educational attendance and a reduction in acute admissions for ketoacidosis.