North East Essex Diabetes Service (NEEDS)

Community clinics, led by consultants, take place on a weekly basis in Clacton, Colchester and Harwich. Our aim is to provide more care across a range of community settings, reducing the need for hospital visits and providing services closer to home.

Patients are referred by their GP practice and seen by a team of specially trained staff. These include a nurse consultant, diabetic specialist nurses, dieticians, community diabetologists, psychologists and podiatrists supported by administrators.

Other specialist clinics, such as insulin pump and podiatry clinics, take place in a variety of GP practices on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.

Teaching patients about their condition is a key element of the support we provide. A variety of educational tools are available and patients can choose the most appropriate approach based on their type of diabetes and length of time they have been diagnosed. In addition to this structured education, the team also support patient forums which are held in Colchester and Tendring.

The NEEDS team is supported by diabetes consultants at Colchester Hospital who provide clinical supervision, education and direct patient care as well as local GP provider organisation GP Primary Choice and ACE, the local podiatry provider.

The Inpatient service is also run from Colchester Hospital, you can find out information for this here

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