Meeting NICE Gold Standards (2015): a feasibility study to improve podiatry accessibility for people with diabetes and foot ulcers.

A person with diabetes and a skin lesion should be referred within one working day and triaged one working day later; this is the gold standard for NHS Trusts (NICE, 2015). The aim of this project was to improve the accessibility to the podiatry service for all patients with diabetes with ulcers and to meet the NICE standards (2015) for treatment of people with diabetes and skin lesions/ulcers. The objectives of the project were to pilot a ‘drop-in’ diabetic foot ulcer clinic, to audit the number and type of patients seen within the clinic, as well as the number of foot ulcer admissions to accident and emergency, and assess the impact of the ‘drop-in’ clinic on A&E. The impact of the service on those attending the clinic was also evaluated.