Health written question – answered at on 29 February 2012.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Leicester East of 6 February 2012, Official Report, column 143W, on diabetes: orthopaedics, what assessment he has made of the variation in the incidence of (a) minor and (b) major amputations per 1,000 population across primary care trusts; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce such variation in incidence.
Unwarranted variation in amputation rates of people with diabetes across the country is unacceptable. It is estimated that with the right care 80% of amputations carried out on patients suffering from diabetes would be preventable.
Decisions about the most appropriate therapeutic treatment for an individual patient are a matter for the local national health service. But through publishing more data like that in the National Diabetes Audit, the Department aims to help commissioners and providers identify where improvements need to be made. It is important that clinicians also review their own data to make improvements to the care that they provide to reduce variation.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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