and with the Interest of the Manx Diabetic patient paramount, attended a meeting at Crookall House on the 17 th July to protest at the concept of any contemplated diminution of the facilities at the Manx Diabetes Centre, and reverting to the old system of “Care in the Community” when we did not have a specialist Manx Diabetes Centre.

The Meeting was attend by Mr John Houghton MHK, a Trustee of the Friends of the Manx Diabetes Centre, The Chairman of the Friends of the Manx Diabetes Centre Mr Henry J Ramagge, and the representatives of the DHSS conducting the Audit, Ms Marie Berry, Clinical Governance Facilitator and Mr R Louden Brown, Public Health Specialist.

The Audit has been commissioned by Mr Norman McGregor Edwards, the new Director of Health, Strategy and Performance, of the Health Services Division of the Department of Health and Social Security.

The Meeting was conducted in a very friendly and cordial atmosphere with each side putting forward its point of view with the 28 year old perennial arguments.

It was mooted on the DHSS side, that there was no need to have produced the report as there was no question of any diminution of the facilities at the Manx Diabetes Centre.

However Mr Houghton and the Chairman were adamant that it had to be tabled as Mr Edwards had written to the Chairman on the 16 th May saying “I did not say that we would not go down the ‘Care in the Community' route as you described it”.

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that had not worked before without a proper specialist Diabetes Centre in place.

Consequently the Chairman tabled a 68 page report in support for the retention of the Manx Diabetes Centre in its present specialist form with a full multi-disciplinary team, but with enhanced facilities.

The report spelled out why we needed a Manx Diabetes Centre, what was diabetes, diabetes complications, the direct and indirect cost of diabetes to the DHSS, the Diabetes Clinical agenda, “Care in the Community”, and the response of the Friends of the Manx Diabetes Centre to any proposed possible “Care in the Community” without a full multi-disciplinary specialist Manx Diabetes Centre in place.

The report contained testimonials on why we should not take the “Care in the Community” route without a Specialist Manx Diabetes Centre from leading Diabetologists, Dr Geoff Gill from the University Hospital Liverpool; Dr Niaz Khan from the Bangor Hospital North Wales; Dr Stefan Slater, from the Victoria Infirmary South Glasgow University Teaching Hospitals Trust now retired in Edinburgh; and Dr Stephen Judd from Flinders University, in South Australia.

In conclusion, the Chairman enumerated the extra facilities offered at the Centre and stressed that we cannot allow any deterioration of the facilities at the Manx Diabetes Centre.

In fact we have to build, he said, on what we have, as without it, what the DHSS would be doing with the introduction of “Care in the Community” with a diminished Manx Diabetes Centre, is taking away from the Manx people the preventative specialist care, that we at present have at the Diabetes Centre, for no valid medical reason.