Diabetes footcare guidance issued for healthcare professionals during second wave

Service management for footcare during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has been set out by a leading diabetes footcare network.

The English Diabetes Footcare Network (EDFN) has set out a clinical strategy to help healthcare professionals clarify the current best practice position within the field of diabetes.

Led by the Network’s Chair Professor Richard Leigh, who is also a Consultant Podiatrist at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, the document has been published in the Diabetic Foot Journal.

‘Strategic change’

The authors said that people who have diabetes and attend a foot service require “regular close surveillance and management to prevent reoccurrence of ulceration, prevention of primary ulceration, hospital admission and possible amputation”.

Professor Leigh said: “We recognised the need for a new strategy during phase 2 and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the English Diabetes Footcare Network has produced guidance for the second wave of COVID-19 in response to these changes.

“The impact of COVID-19 virus was rapid and required strategic change to the NHS. Medical and allied health service personnel were strategically redeployed to meet the increasing needs within hospitals to meet frontline care needs. We now need to carefully consider how to deliver quality foot care for people with diabetes while being resilient to ongoing demands on the NHS.”

NICE has recommended that all new diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) should ideally be reviewed within 24 hours of referral by the multidisciplinary foot care team (MDFT). This recommendation has not changed throughout the pandemic.

To read the guidance in full, click here.

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