Dr Carrie Mackenzie describes the experience of the Sheffield Children’s Hospital diabetes team in delivering effective and innovative care for children and young people during the pandemic, embracing and overcoming the challenges posed by COVID-19.
In March 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak a pandemic and a public health emergency of international concern. The pandemic has created unprecedented difficulties in delivering diabetes care, with fear of virus infection playing a large part in the reluctance of service users to access routine and urgent medical care.
The decision to suspend all non-essential face-to-face patient contacts was made nationally by the NHS in March 2020 with immediate effect and with no specific prior planning, leaving individual clinical teams to come up with rapidly implemented innovative ways of working in order to ensure that young people and their families could continue to access appropriate, effective care and that clinical outcomes were not adversely affected.
The Sheffield Children’s Hospital diabetes team was determined to find ways to ensure the best possible care to its service users during the pandemic. It was also keen to assess the effect of lockdown on glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), which is tested routinely every three months to monitor the long-term control of diabetes mellitus. Glycated haemoglobin not only provides a reliable measure of chronic hyperglycaemia but also correlates well with the risk of long-term diabetes complications.
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