More than two million people in the UK live with diabetes. This does not include an approximate seventy five thousand people who have not been diagnosed.

The most common forms of diabetes are Type 1 and Type 2. They are caused by too much glucose in your blood, and can lead to further health problems if they are not correctly treated or ignored.

The West Suffolk Hospital Diabetes Team has a caseload of over three thousand patients with diabetes. There are a further five thousand patients with diabetes in the local community, who are primarily looked after by their GP. The team at WSH often provides support and education in relation to treatment where necessary.

 Mission statement

“We believe that our role is to empower people with diabetes to achieve optimum overall long term health and well being. Our goal as a team is to maximize quality of life for people with diabetes by providing the best possible advice and care, taking into account the patient’s beliefs and choices.”

Services Provided

Education Programs

DESMOND (National Education program for Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetics)

New to Insulin

Healthy Lifestyle

Carbohydrate Education

Foot care

West Suffolk Traffic light Guidance on Foot care and ulcer risk.

Pregnancy and Preconceptual Care

DiabeteSuffolk Website

West Suffolk Diabetes team independent educational resource for patients; see www.diabetesuffolk.com|

Best Care Guidelines

Joint PCT and Hospital patient management guidelines.

Insulin Adjustment

Practical guidance on insulin dose adjustment for patients and allied health professionals.

SuffDig

Diabetes interest group for both professionals and patients with diabetes.

Main Contact Numbers

Name	Profession	Secretary	Contact No.
Mrs Hartley, Mrs Griggs, Mrs Horsman, Mrs Hunt	Diabetes Specialist Nurses	Mrs Judy Tarbun	01284 713311 01284 713241 Fax: 01284 713241
Mrs Southgate, MrsMax Shipp	Diabetes In Patient Specialist Nurse		01284 712852
Dr Clark Dr Gurnell	Consultants in Diabetes and Endocrinology	Mrs Joanne Rampley Mrs Deirdre Brown	01284 713408 01284 712639 Fax: 01284 712639
Dr Wijenaike	Consultants in Diabetes and Endocrinology	Mrs Liz Thompson	01284 712857 Fax: 01284 712639
Dr Majeed	Consultants in Diabetes and Endocrinology	Mrs Susan Richardson	01284 713406 Fax: 01284 713406
Miss Amanda Nunn	Diabetes Database coordinator

 Where are we?

G3 corridor, on the ground floor, West Suffolk Hospital.

Members of the team

Dr John Clark, Consultant Diabetologists

Dr Ellie Gurnell, Consultant Diabetologist

Dr Joohi Majeed, Consultant Diabetologist

Dr Nishan Wijenaike, Consultant Diabetologist

Dr Robert Bradley, GP Assistant

Dr Matthew Lockyer, GP assistant

Mr Viv Smith, Podiatrist

Miss Amanda Nunn, Diabetes Database coordinator

Miss Emma Randall, Diabetes Research Nurse

Mrs Liz Hartley, Senior Diabetes Specialist Nurse

Mrs Sue Griggs, Diabetes Specialist Nurse

Mrs Rowena Horsman, Diabetes Specialist Nurse

Mrs Mandy Hunt, Diabetes Specialist Nurse

Mrs Dawn Southgate, Inpatient Specialist Nurse

Mrs Max Shipp, Inpatient Specialist Nurse

Miss Isabel Hooley, Dietician

Mrs Deirdre Brown, Secretary

Mrs Liz Thompson, Secretary

Mrs Joanne Rampley, Secretary

Mrs Susan Richardson, Secretary

Mrs Lorraine Fairhead, Volunteer

Appointments

Appointments to the various clinics are accessed via choose and book.

Referral for pregnancy and prenatal care can be arranged through community or hospital midwives and the diabetes specialist nurses.

The diabetes specialist nurses offer a drop in clinic, which is available to all patients registered with the WSH diabetes team.

The specialist nurses also offer a telephone service to support GP’s, practice nurses and patients.

Clinics

Clinic	Where	When
Adolescent Diabetes Clinic (Age 16-18)	Diabetes Centre	Wednesday afternoon monthly
Young Person’s Clinic (Age 18-40)	Diabetes Centre	Wednesday Mornings six weekly
Rapid Access Clinic	Diabetes Centre	When required
Pump Clinic	Diabetes Centre	Wednesday afternoon monthly
Foot Clinic	Podiatry Rooms	Wednesday afternoon
Podiatry Clinic	Podiatry Rooms	Monday and Wednesday morning
Medical Obstetric Clinic	Ante Natal Clinic	Wednesday afternoon fortnightly
General Diabetes Clinic	West Suffolk Hospital Diabetes Centre	Tuesday morning fortnightly Wednesday morning Thursday morning fortnightly
	Sudbury Hospital	Thursday morning fortnightly
	Newmarket Hospital	Tuesday afternoon fortnightly

Endocrinology

Endocrine clinics are held weekly, followed by a case review/discussion.  We have close liaison with our Endocrine surgeon and radiological colleagues, participating in a monthly thyroid multi disciplinary team meeting. Neurosurgical services are provided by Addenbrookes NHS trust, Cambridge – we are welcome to present our cases at their monthly neuro-endocrine multi disciplinary team meeting. 

We participate in the monthly regional diabetes/endocrine video conference.

Patient Information

Further information can be found at – www.diabetesuffolk.com|

The PALS section contains patient leaflets| relating to diabetes.

Support Groups

Suffolk Diabetes Interest Group: www.suffdig.org.uk|

Additional information

The Suffolk Diabetes interest group (SuffDIG) was founded in 2006 by Nishan Wijenaike, Liz Hartley, John Hines and Olivia Posner. The aim was to bring together a group of people, those who have diabetes or family members and healthcare professionals who wanted to achieve an improvement in diabetes services in Suffolk.

The group is interested in enlisting new members who have an interest in diabetes and want to work toward enhancing local services.