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Diabetes

The diabetes team offer a dynamic and multifaceted service to people with a range of types of diabetes. We provide integrated care to support patients with type 1 diabetes, diabetic kidney disease, young adult diabetes, diabetic foot, complex type 2 diabetes, diabetes in pregnancy and patients using Insulin pumps. Clinics are held at Yeovil Hospital, Musgrove Park Hospital, Chard, Bridgwater, South Petherton, Wincanton, Yeatman and Minehead community hospitals. Antenatal diabetes clinics are held at Musgrove Park and Yeovil Hospital.

We work as part of a multidisciplinary team including diabetes doctors, diabetes specialist nurses, diabetes podiatrists, diabetes dietitians. We provide structured education for patients with type 1 diabetes (DAFNE courses), as well as training in the use of insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitoring and flash glucose monitoring.

MyWayDiabetes is an online self-management platform for people with diabetes in Somerset. The website has a host of information, educational resources and eLearning programmes. Patients with diabetes can register for secure access to their personal diabetes health records displayed via easy to understand dashboards.

Hybrid closed loop (HCL) system delay statement

Back in December we, like many of you, welcomed the news that the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) gave the NHS the green light to roll out hybrid closed loop (HCL) systems for people with type 1 diabetes.

We started this process and have been speaking to patients who would be eligible, offering them the opportunity to take up the new HCL system. However, in recent weeks, the timeline of the roll-out has been delayed and patients may be waiting longer than originally anticipated.

The HCL system roll-out is a five-year long programme, we would like to reassure you that we will continue to work towards rolling this out when we are able to.

We appreciate this will be disappointing for some of you who have been contacted already. Our teams are working hard to provide ongoing support and care while we wait for the HCL systems to become available.

Those patients already booked for a pump and or HCL will be contacted directly by their departments.

The following short video demonstrates MyWayDiabetes

Endocrinology

We provide a comprehensive service to people with all types of endocrine (hormonal) conditions. We care for patients with problems with the pituitary gland, thyroid, parathyroid glands, adrenal glands, ovaries and testes, and other less common conditions, such as endocrine tumour syndromes. Patients with lipid disorders are seen by Dr Bickerton at Yeovil Hospital.

We hold general endocrine clinics at Yeovil Hospital, Musgrove Park Hospital, Chard, Bridgwater, South Petherton, Wincanton and Yeatman community hospitals. Specialised clinics, including antenatal endocrine clinics, are held at Musgrove Park Hospital and Yeovil Hospital.

We perform complex endocrine investigations in our Medical Day Unit. We work closely with the regional pituitary, adrenal and thyroid MDTs. We have close links with our local endocrine surgeons. We also work with specialised endocrine surgeons in London, Bristol and Exeter. We work with the paediatric endocrinologists to support patients transition from paediatric to adult services. We are part of the Peninsula Endocrine Network.

Useful resources and support groups

Weight management

We are a specialised Tier 3 weight management centre, seeing 40-50 people a month. We offer a number of programmes focusing on lifestyle and dietary changes, medication and psychological support. All patients considering bariatric surgery are seen in our service as part of their assessment for suitability for surgery.  It is important that patients are fully prepared for this life-changing procedure. We work closely with surgical team to ensure patients who go for surgery are fully prepared and risks are minimised.

We also see an increasing number of people with rarer conditions linked to obesity such as those with genetic causes, craniopharyngiomas and Prader-Willi syndrome.

We carry out detailed assessments to look for any conditions and factors linked to obesity. We tailor treatment plans to improve health by working at changes in lifestyle and making sure any other problems are treated as effectively as possible and are involved in clinical trials of new weight loss medications.

All weight management clinics are held at Musgrove Park Hospital. Our multidisciplinary team includes Consultants, Dietitians, Psychologists and our Specialist Nurse.

Specialist weight management service update

The specialist weight management service at Musgrove Park Hospital will no longer be accepting new routine referrals. This decision has not been taken lightly but reflects that the service cannot safely manage the volume of current activity and has seen its waiting list and waiting times increase significantly.

The aim is that the service will re-open in the future with an increased capacity and we will keep you informed of developments in this area. Details on other available weight management services are available on TeamNet.

During this period, the service will continue to accept the below urgent referrals, anything outside of this will be considered as non-urgent and routine:

  • urgent weight loss needed for cancer treatment
  • urgent weight loss needed for life saving interventions (transplant, cardiac surgery, spinal surgery where cauda equina is a risk without surgery etc.)
  • urgent weight loss needed to treat a medical condition to which obesity is a significant contributor as accepted by the service (severe heart failure, respiratory failure, visual impairment from idiopathic intracranial hypertension etc.)