Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Portsmouth endocrine department does not have a dedicated acromegaly clinic. This group of patient are seen in general consultant endocrine clinic and those who need treatment with Somatostatin analogues have their initial injections with our endocrine specialist nurses (ENS). Once on a stable injection dose they are handed over to their practice nurse (PN) for on-going administration. Patients often comment that they like the initial monthly ENS contact at the centre and miss this when it ceases.

Innovation: The endocrine team therefore invited twenty of our acromegaly patient to an informal afternoon meeting in April 2016. All patients arrived together and the event was held in an allocated room with refreshments. A specialist registrar (SpR) and ENS ran the event. We also used this as an opportunity to also update the participants on new innovations. This included the opportunity to download an APP which looked at ways by which patients could personally track their care. Attendees were also invited to write anonymous questions that they wished to ask either to the group or to the event organisers. Attendees filled in written anonymous feedback forms at the end.

Results: Sixty per cent of patients invited attended.

Ninety per cent felt the group was of great benefit. Hundred per cent of those who attended said that they would like a similar event to be organised.

Future plans: It was striking that the majority of our acromegalic patients had never met someone else with the same condition and how beneficial they found the experience. We therefore have plans to run this group again with the aim to make it an annual event and extend invitation to all acromegalic patients on our database. We are also considering other endocrine conditions which may benefit from patients meeting each other and having education delivered in this way.