Your NHS journey

Before your appointment, think about what you’d like to talk to your doctor or nurse about, such as;

• How your diabetes management is going
• Any problems with your medication
• Any new health problems
• Make a list of the points you want to raise

During your appointment:

• Listen carefully to what your doctor or nurse suggests
• Ask them to explain anything you don’t understand
• Take notes so you don’t forget anything
• Make sure you’re clear about how to take any new medications
• Refer to your list to make sure you’ve covered everything
• Take someone with you who can help you remember what’s said

After your appointment:

• Review what’s been agreed
• Note down anything you need for your next appointment
• Make sure you’ve booked your next appointment
• Identify who you should contact if you have any difficulties with your
  diabetes management, and how.

At the hospital/GP surgery

Whether you monitor your blood glucose yourself or not, your doctor or nurse will do a long term measure of your blood glucose. This is called the HbA1c, and it measures how well your diabetes has been managed over the past two to three months. The general target for HbA1c is <6.5% (48 mmols/mol) or <7.5% (59 mmols/mol) if you are at risk of severe hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose levels). But again, your target should be individual so your doctor or nurse may advise a different level.

From June next year, HbA1c will be reported in a different way. Instead of getting your result as a percentage, you will get it in “mmols/mol”. This result will be higher but don’t worry, it doesn’t mean there’s more glucose in your blood, it’s just a different way of reporting. To help you get used to the new method, from now until next June you will get your result in both ways, a percentage and in mmols/mol.

The following table will help you convert your old result to the new:

HbA1c  mmols/mol

6.0        42

6.5        48

7.0        53

7.5        58

8.0        64

8.5        69

9.0        75

9.5        80

10         86

Next steps

Seeing a GP

If you have any of the symptoms of diabetes or risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, you must get checked out by your GP.  If he/she feels you might have diabetes, he/she will arrange for you to have a blood test. This might be a “fasting blood glucose test” (where you don’t eat or drink anything for at least 8 hours before the test) or an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). This is where you have a fasting blood glucose test and then drink a measured amount of a sweet drink like an energy drink.  Then two hours later you have another blood test.