BMJ 1999;318:460 ( 13 February )

Letters

Meta-analysis of diabetes care in general practice

    All glucose meters must be subject to formal quality control measures
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All glucose meters must be subject to formal quality control measures

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---A meta-analysis of diabetes care in the community concluded that unstructured care is associated with poorer follow up, worse glycaemic control, and greater morbidity than is in-hospital care.1 The article emphasised that the transfer of responsibility for diabetes to general practice without adequate support is associated with adverse patient outcomes. Such support is essential in the monitoring of the quality of community based glucose assays, although this was not specifically referred to in the article.

In 1987, as a consequence of a patient's death, the Scottish Health Service issued a safety hazard notice relating to the incorrect use of glucose meters.2 Key messages in the notice include ensuring that staff using the meters are fully trained and that quality control procedures are adopted. In response to this our laboratory developed a quality control scheme to monitor the performance of meters and users across our two hospital sites. The scheme . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Diabetes care in general practice: meta-analysis of randomised control trials • Commentary: Meta-analysis is a blunt and potentially misleading instrument for analysing models of service delivery
Simon Griffin and Trisha Greenhalgh
BMJ 1998 317: 390-396. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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