Transforming local care

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is steadily increasing in Western socie ty, with obvious implications for costs to health-care providers. A project plan to transform local care has been established in Wales to enable diabe tic patients to self-manage their disease by improving education and access to information and tests locally. The plan involves the establishment of l ocal diabetes centres providing educational resources to the patients, care rs and health professionals. It envisages that the local diabetes community centres will provide all aspects of diabetic care, from diagnosis to conti nuing management, with the aid of modern communications technology.