There are over 80 hospitals in England and Wales that do not have the specialist diabetes foot care teams that are widely recognised as being important for preventing diabetesrelated amputations.
The hospitals, whose names are being published by Diabetes UK, have not set up multidisciplinary foot care teams (MDTs) for patients with diabetes – despite this being recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Diabetes UK pointed out that establishing these teams would help reduce the amputation rate in people with diabetes, which is more than 20 times higher than in the rest of the population. There are about 100 diabetesrelated amputations every week in the UK, but up to 80% of these could be prevented. Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: “It is a tragic example of the short-termist approach of some hospitals that they are failing to invest in an MDT, despite the fact that the financial savings from doing fewer amputations is likely to outweigh the cost of setting up one of these teams.”
