In June, the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) wrote to Mr Lansley, Secretary of State for Health:
“As an organization representing 70% of UK Specialist Diabetes Physicians, we firmly believe that involvement of clinicians in commissioning of health care is the correct strategy to facilitate both the development and provision of high quality care for patients that is evidence-based and cost-effective. This is especially important as it is estimated that by 2030 diabetes will affect 4.6 million people in England alone.
Leadership of clinical commissioning consortia, provided by local primary care clinicians will be of paramount importance. However ABCD strongly advocates the inclusion of specialists in the commissioning groups, to enable the full diabetes pathway to be commissioned, and to act as a conduit for accessing multidisciplinary expertise for this complex disease. This is particularly important for long term conditions where there is widespread consensus that collaboration and integration are more important than competition.
Effective commissioning will only be achieved when the full breath of clinical expertise, in partnership with excellent managerial support, is applied to the task.
We exhort the government to recognize the expertise of specialists in supporting clinical commissioning to deliver services for diabetes which meet the legitimate aspirations of our patients and their carers.
Yours sincerely,
- List of signatories
Executive
Dr Chris Walton, Honorary Chair, Association of British Clinical Diabetologists
Dr Peter Winocour, Immediate Past Chair
Dr Rob Gregory, Honorary Treasurer
Dr Patrick Sharp, Honorary General Secretary
Dr Ketan Dhatariya Honorary Meetings Secretary
Committee
Prof Stephanie Amiel, Committee Member
Dr Russell Drummond, Committee Member
Dr Ian Gallen, Committee Member
Dr Niru Goenka, Committee Member
Dr Partha Kar, Committee Member
Dr Dinesh Nagi, Committee Member
Dr Dipesh Patel,Committee Member
Dr Gerry Rayman, Committee Member
Dr Aled Roberts, Committee Member
Dr Tony Robinson Committee Member
Dr Bob Ryder, Committee Member
Dr Susannah Rowles, Committee Member
Dr Mark Savage, Committee Member
Dr Ian Scobie, Committee Member
Prof Alan Sinclair, Chair Academic subcommittee
Dr Emma Wilmot , Committee Member
