Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Transition from paediatric to adult care is a challenging time for patients with long-term conditions (NICE, 2016), care should support patients to minimize further emotional, physical and social difficulties.

Aims: To improve the quality of care for paediatric patients with diabetes through transition to adult care at Darent Valley Hospital (DVH). Our hypothesis is that is transitional care for diabetes at DVH meeting NICE guidelines or not? Also is there a need for specific pathway to suit local needs?

Methods: Case control study between November 2016 – February 2017, by surveying patients who had transitioned to young adults’ diabetes clinic at DVH about quality of care, aged 16–21. Retrospective cohort study performed on the HbA1c values of patients who had transitioned since 2005 at DVH.

Results: **10–70% of patients reported no education on topics especially pertaining to transitional diabetic care (Crowley et al., 2017). 40% of patients dependent on others to arrange their own appointments. 30% of patients felt a change in diabetes control. N=23. HbA1c values of 93% of patients increased over the first two years post-transition, averaged +1.14 over the first year, 95% CI (−0.1, 2.4, P<0.05). N=89.

Discussion: There is no effective transitional care process for Diabetes at DVH, and it is not meeting patients’ needs or clinical guidelines (NICE, 2016). We propose a new pathway to meet patient needs, clinical guidelines, and by meeting DoH best practice tariff criteria (Randell, 2015), it is financially sustainable. This can be extrapolated to other chronic long term diseases, and to improve clinical outcomes, reduce hospital admissions, and reduce long-term care costs (NICE, 2016).