National Diabetes Foot Care Audit: Interval review
The National Diabetes Foot Care Audit (NDFA) has published its latest report in the form of an interval review. Based on 108,450 foot ulcer episodes in 76,310 people with diabetes in England and Wales, between July 2014 and March 2021, the report identifies important trends in foot care processes and outcomes.
The report found that the proportion of referrals seen by a specialist foot care team within 13 days has increased from 43% in 2014-15 to 46% in 2020-21. Other key findings include:
- There was a linked reduction in the proportion of ulcers that are severe at first expert assessment (from 48% to 43%), in addition to a subsequent decrease in the proportion of ulcers still active at 12 weeks (from 49% to 40%).
- However, variations in 12-week outcomes persist, with gaps in service provision, particularly in multi-disciplinary foot care service (MDFS) integration with renal services. For example, it is notable that almost 1 in 5 people (18%) presenting with a severe ulcer died (15%) or underwent major amputation (3%) within 1 year.
In addition, this report makes a number of recommendations including a call to healthcare professionals to arrange early expert assessment of all new foot ulcer episodes. It also suggests that specialist clinical services which care for foot ulcers in diabetes should be accessible everywhere.
Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the link below.
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