ADULTS with diabetes are benefiting from a new service closer to home in Huddersfield.

The Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has introduced diabetes outreach clinics at the Grange Group Practice on Spaines Road at Fartown.

The new service is in addition to the diabetes clinic already held at the Grange.

It aims to help people with diabetes to manage their condition and improve their quality of life through a partnership approach to education, medication and the use of technology.

Dr Tony Burrows, a consultant physician at the trust, and Kate Garside, a health care assistant at the practice, run the clinics.

Dr Burrows said: “The diabetes outreach clinic at the Grange is a new development.

“It could potentially be the way forward for the management of some patients with diabetes.

“Working in a community setting has further strengthened communications between hospital and community staff, leading to improved care for our patients.”

Dr David Anderson, a GP at the Grange and chairman of Kirklees Primary Care Trust’s professional executive committee, said: “The new diabetes outreach clinics demonstrate the commitment of the Kirklees and Calderdale PCTs and the Calderdale and Huddersfield trust to extending the range of services offered in community settings.

“We have received many positive comments about the new clinic from our patients.”

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic condition caused by too much glucose in the blood. Levels of blood sugar can be too high when the body does not make enough of the hormone insulin.

There are two types of diabetes. Type 1 develops if the body can’t produce any insulin. This type usually appears before the age of 40. It is the least common of the two and accounts of between 5% and 15% of all people with diabetes.

In type 2 the body does not make enough insulin, or cannot use it properly. It occurs mostly in people over the age of 40, though in South Asian and African-Caribbean people, often appears after the age of 25.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common of the two main types and accounts for between 85% and 95% of all people with diabetes.

There are now more than 2.3m people in the UK with the condition.