This report sets out key recommendations for Clinical Commissioning Groups on reducing amputations including:
- Setting targets for improvement of footcare services informed by local data
- Investigating the cause of amputations
- Establishing multidisciplinary foot care teams and foot protection teams
- Education and training for health care professionals and people with diabetes
- Auditing diabetes footcare across the pathway
- Supporting footcare networks
The recommendations arise from a meeting In October 2012 where people with diabetes, vascular surgeons, podiatrists, diabetologists, commissioners, researchers, policy advisers, GPs and a health economist came together in Westminster to spend a day sharing their expertise and experience of footcare for people with diabetes.
They were all in agreement that achieving rapid access to specialist assessment and treatment for all those with a foot problem would make all the difference in achieving the goal of reducing amputations by 50 per cent over the next five years.
