Reducing funding to community diabetes programmes could result in GP practices running the expensive services in-house, a charity has warned.

Diabetes UK said it is worried that NHS cuts could lead to diabetes education schemes not being available to patients.

While a Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicator for the schemes has recently been given the go-ahead by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) QOF advisory committee, an admission was made by the committee that, because of cuts in funding, there may not be local services that can see patients who have been referred by GPs.

As part of the plans, GPs would receive payments for sending newly diagnosed people with diabetes to an education programme, such as Desmond or Dafne.

But pilot schemes for the indicators resulted in 40% of practices providing diabetes education in-house due to an unavailability of local services.

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"It's a mixed reaction depending on the PCT area that you are doing a survey. In the Midlands and North of England, the hospital diabetic service are welcoming the GP nurses to continue educating the newly diagnosed diabetics and are quite helpful if the practice nurses would like to do the insulin initiation, while in the South they are quite protective of
their position and feel threatened by other nurse who are willing to expand their service. What we are all aiming for is the best service and most accessible for our patients/clients" - Minerva Chesser, Midlands

"Receiving the education around diabetes through GP surgeries may be beneficial for patients especially in Rural areas as long as the education is given by well informed/qualified staff who have the time to teach and monitor patients otherwise patients will be missed or even misinformed regarding their diabetes and this could have detremental effects which will impact on their long-term health outcomes, on the health service and
the wider NHS" - Carol Young