Icelandic visitors get a warm welcome from diabetes team

A group of diabetes specialists from Landspitali Hospital in Reykjavík learned a great deal about the care of people with diabetes when they visited Guy’s and St Thomas’ last week.

Anna Reid, nurse consultant in diabetes, spoke at a conference last year in the Icelandic capital about her work in collaborative care planning and with patient  groups. She was then asked to organise a UK visit for a select group of two specialist nurses, two specialist dietitians, and an exercise therapist. 

Anna says: “In Iceland they traditionally work one to one, while we increasingly do group education and training as we find it’s more effective. We run nationally recognised and organised educational programmes for people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The Reykjavík team were very keen to come and see this and then establish their own programmes.”

Bertha Maria Arsaelsdattir, a food scientist and nutritionist at the Reykjavík hospital, says: “It’s been nice listening to the patients and getting to know them and it’s been very interesting to see how this kind of education is delivered so differently to ours. 

"We have a small population at home so it’s hard for us to develop programmes like this. Here it is much more structured and planned and we will take this home with us.”