Implementation of the National Service Framework for Diabetes: initial opportunities for a PCT to facilitate practice and health community action plans – year one experience

By considering our experiences within the first year, this article reflects a primary care trust’s (PCT’s) approach to starting to effectively initiate the National Service Framework (NSF) by the facilitation of practice and health community action plans.

The local framework for developing a health community care pathway utilised service review meetings, which are open to health professionals across the health community. The review meetings provide the opportunity to present initial draft proposals which precipitate an open discussion before the adoption of agreed action plans. The meetings aim to utilise local resources both within the specialist diabetes service at our local district hospital, but also within the community (see Box 1). Our intention through such a framework was to establish appropriate local professional ownership and confidence in the initiative to support the most effective implementation for the NSF for Diabetes, facilitated by the PCT. 1

The article also considers the opportunities and potential benefits of sharing information reflecting the progress of individual practices, within a positive reporting framework.