General practice based diabetes surveillance: the views of patients

Forty three patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes registered at two suburban practices were interviewed at least one year after the introduction of an organized general practice based system of diabetic surveillance and the results compared with data gathered from interviews administered before the introduction of the system. Structured data from the two interviews were compared in relation to the importance which patients attached to diabetes and its medical review, patients' preference for place of future review and the health professionals from whom they wished to receive diabetes care. Patients' ratings of the performance of health professionals on various aspects of care were compared with the ratings given before the introduction of the new service. At the follow-up interviews the reasons behind patients' responses to the structured questions were explored using a qualitative method. The introduction of a general practice based diabetes service was marked by an improvement in attendance for diabetes monitoring (56% before introduction, 98% in the year following introduction). This was associated with an increase in the importance which patients attached to diabetes and its medical review. After experience of diabetes care in general practice, patients remained enthusiastic about general practice involvement and confident in their general practitioners' knowledge about diabetes management. In spite of an improvement in the patients' ratings of hospital doctors' communication skills, they continued to rate general practitioners significantly more highly in these skills (P < 0.01) and in terms of convenience and accessibility (P < 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)