A new diabetes society has been launched with the aim of bringing together all primary care workers together under the same policy and advocacy group. The non-for-profit Primary Care Diabetes Society of Australia (PCDSA) is the fruition of two years of work by the chair, Clinical Associate Professor Mark Kennedy, in the department […]
A new diabetes society has been launched with the aim of bringing together all primary care workers together under the same policy and advocacy group.
The non-for-profit Primary Care Diabetes Society of Australia (PCDSA) is the fruition of two years of work by the chair, Clinical Associate Professor Mark Kennedy, in the department of general practice at University of Melbourne, and his colleagues.
“Given the majority of consultations each week for diabetes are in primary care, and given the vast majority of health practitioners seeing patients with diabetes each week are in primary care rather than in hospital, it’s probably timely for there to be a more primary care focussed voice in relation to the management of diabetes in primary care,” Professor Kennedy told TMR.
“It’s very different to the management in the secondary and tertiary sector, and up until now there’s never been a group that’s managed to go beyond a single discipline in the primary care sector,” he said.
The PCDSA will provide CPD activities and is free for Australian primary healthcare professionals who manage diabetes.
The group has also created the quarterly journal Diabetes & Primary Care Australia, which will be led by Dr Gary Kilov, founding member of the RACGP diabetes specific interest group, as the Editor.
An educational conference is planned for Melbourne early next year.
As well as an educational and clinical hub for clinicians, Professor Kennedy hoped that a multidisciplinary advisory committee would provide a stronger voice on policy matters that “goes beyond [the] self-interest” of individual disciplines.
“Having a joint submission signed off on by a number of relevant health groups may be much more powerful for pushing a rational approach for funding diabetes expenditure in diabetes care, rather than each different craft group,” he said.
The initiative has been met with “some caution, but also some enthusiasm”, Dr Kennedy said.
But they hope it will be embraced with results similar to groups in Europe and the UK.
“We’ll work together very effectively [with currently existing groups] and ultimately we’d hope that our health practitioners get access to improved and timely information that’s freely accessible…and our patients benefit,” he said.
Visit the site at www.pcdsa.com.au
