QIM 10: Proportion of regular clients with diabetes with blood pressure recorded in their GP record within the previous 6 months
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in people with diabetes, making regular assessment, prevention, and management of CVD risk factors such as blood pressure and lipid levels, a vital part of diabetes care. For people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, managing blood pressure can help ensure appropriate medical care to lower the risk of macrovascular (stroke, heart attack and heart failure) and microvascular (kidney disease, eye disease and peripheral neuropathy) complications (RACGP 2020b).
Capture of results recorded outside of the general practice setting
Some patients with diabetes may receive care from other practitioners in addition to a GP, including an endocrinologist/a specialist physician, and/or other health care providers to safely manage their diabetes (RACGP 2020b). Results arising from clinical intervention conducted outside of the service that are known and recorded by the practice are included in the measure. However, sometimes blood pressure recorded elsewhere is not captured in this report. For example, this might be a result from a specialist service that is not recorded in the clinical information system of the client’s usual general practice due to an incompatible clinical information system between a practice and a specialist service.
Other sources of relevant data
Data on prevalence of long-term health conditions like diabetes are captured in the National Health Survey (NHS) conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). There are other administrative data collections where the data from these client-provider interactions are captured, for example, Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), the National Diabetes Service Scheme (NDSS) register, the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Groups (APEG), and state and territory registers.
This indicator reports on the proportion of regular clients who have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, or an undefined diabetes diagnosis, hereafter described as diabetes, who had blood pressure recorded in their GP record within the previous 6 months.
QIM 10: Regional proportions
As of July 2022, nationally, 54.7% of regular clients with diabetes had blood pressure recorded in their GP record within the previous 6 months. This varied from 44.5% to 63.4% across PHNs.