There are 2.8 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK. It's estimated that a further 500,000 people have the disease but are unaware they have it or will develop it in the near future by continuing their current lifestyle.

The burden of disease drives a significant proportion of NHS activity and related costs as demonstrated by:

• Diabetes prescribing costs £725 million (equivalent to 8.4% NHS net bill for primary care drugs)
  
• 2.5 per 1,000 people diagnosed with diabetes have foot or leg amputations
  
• 5.1 per 1,000 people aged 17+ diagnosed with diabetes have an emergency admission.
  

Improving the commissioning and delivery of services for these people to reduce this burden and improve the care and experience of these people should be the aim for all those involved in the diabetes care

What is Quality Improvement

Quality Improvement or Service Improvement is the process by which improvement of the delivery of the care pathway or part of it is achieved.

This requirement can result from a number of drivers, including: quality, productivity, patient experience and commissioning.

This resource should be read in conjunction with the Commissioning section of the web site and can also be used by organisations as part of their approach to continuous improvement.

Using this resource

This Quality Improvement Resource provides prompts and practical guidance through the improvement process with links to supporting tools and case studies. (Please note the resource is under continuous review and update).

The resource has two parts:

The Improvement Strategy – consisting of three important fundamental elements.

The Improvement Cycle – consisting of development and testing activities to implement incremental changes.

Underpinning these are sections on Project and Programme Management and People Involvement