PATHWAYS TO URGENT OR EMERGENCY CARE FOR
PEOPLE WITH DIABETES
Dr Natasha Posner*, Prof Kate Seers*, Prof Vivien Coates#, Jane Canny≈, Ash Pandya
*RCN Research Institute, School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick; #University of Ulster;
≈The Royal London Hospital
This research
is funded by
the NIHR
Research for
Patient Benefit
Programme
until Oct 2010
The sites:
The Royal London
Hospital Whitechapel
[Barts & the London
NHS Trust]
Altnagelvin Hospital
Londonderry
[Western Health &
Social Care Trust]
The project aims to:
 Increase understanding of the views and perceptions of people with diabetes who are provided with
urgent care as a result of emergency admission or urgent need
 Investigate the factors that precipitate admission to hospital and influence the routes/care pathways
taken to access urgent care services
 Identify sources of support for people with diabetes and urgent care needs which would help to avoid
unplanned admissions – where appropriate
 Determine any barriers to accessing this support among different sectors of the diabetic population
 Develop recommendations and intervention(s) that can be trialled to address this situation and make
best use of community based and self-care resources.
Research Methods
Planned outcomes
Semi-structured interviews – with diabetic
patients recently hospitalised for urgent/emergency care +
relevant doctors & nurses in the hospital & key health
professional informants in the community
Focus groups – with people with diabetes & their carers/
families + health care providers in the community (including
PCT commissioners and ambulance service)
Documentary evidence – such as hospital admission
statistics, protocols & admission criteria + patient education
material + PCT documentation
Analytical frameworks – explanatory models of illness
episodes (Kleinman, 1980); case study analysis with cross
case analysis of process units.
Working group of stakeholders - to review evidence and
consider recommendations, developments and report.
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Researcher contact: for more information about this study please contact Dr Natasha Posner, Natasha.posner@warwick.ac.uk
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Insight into range of lay explanatory models of
illness episodes involving urgent care needs
Identification of what works well, whether there are
any barriers to access of community based urgent
care /support that could be overcome, and any
gaps in service provision that could be filled – shift
to more community based care
Recommendations based on a model of a patient
centred, integrated &resource efficient approach to
meeting need for diabetic urgent care
Development of a funding application to trial an
intervention or interventions to improve response
to diabetic urgent care needs
Possible reduction of ‘unnecessary’ urgent care
hospital admissions.