icon-nav-help
Need Help

Submit your question to our team of health care professionals.

icon-nav-current-questions
Current Question

See what's on the mind of the community right now.

icon-conf-speakers-at-a-glance
Meet the Team

Learn more about our world-renowned team.

icon-nav-archives
CWD Answers Archives

Review the entire archive according to the date it was posted.

CWD_Answers_Icon
November 27, 2001

Community Resources

advertisement
Question from Liverpool, England:

I am a first year medical student currently studying diabetes as part of my course. Please could tell me if you believe there to be any inequality within the ‘system’? By ‘system’ I mean the processes of referral to diabetes clinics, waiting lists, resources (injection pens, free glasses), treatment. For example, sons/daughters of doctors/consultants. Is every patient treated with exactly the same procedure? Any information in this area would be most useful.

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

Writing personally as a doctor working in the UK, I do not treat people specially because of their background, and I don’t know of anyone who would. All of our patients are treated

JS
Additional comments from Dr. Stuart Brink:

Nobody is treated the same even in the same countries since medicine is an art and not a science. This applies to diabetes care as well although there are many textbooks as well as treatment guidelines. Consensus Guidelines for the Management of Insulin-Dependent Diabetes in Childhood and Adolescence 2000 from ISPAD is a good consensus document. ADA guidelines [The ADA’s Clinical Practice Recommendations for 2001 are available at http://journal.diabetes.org/CareSup1Jan01.htm — Ed.] as well as IDF Guidelines to Type 1 diabetes and IDF Guidelines to Type 2 diabetes, Australia, Canada and UK all have excellent guidelines as well. Treatment philosophy of the physicians and other diabetes team members counts incredibly.

Referral is likewise extremely biased. Physicians get different referral options and each country system, HMO or state-run system, has its own set of biases. Financial capabilities, transportation capabilities and just access to information all count for not only cost of care but also what care is provided — living in the capitol city of a country or region matters, closeness to medical centers and university centers matters vs rural clinics.

SB