The Ministry of Health invites the participation of residents who have received care for Type I or Type II Diabetes in completing the Diabetes Patient Care Survey.
The Diabetes Patient Care Survey will launch on Wednesday 13 August 2025. All responses must be submitted by Wednesday 10 September 2025. The Survey can be accessed through the following link – Diabetes Disease: Survey for Diabetic Patients and Caregivers - and will take approximately 15 – 20 minutes to complete. All feedback will remain anonymous.
As part of the Ministry’s work to better understand the journey of Diabetes patients through Bermuda’s health system and strengthen their overall care experience, the Survey will be collecting perspectives on experiences accessing and using health services related to the support of Diabetes care.
The Survey is a component of the Ministry’s current Diabetes Integrated Care Pathway initiative that is being led by a multi-disciplinary working group that is Chaired by Dr. Andrew Jamieson, with the support of the Ministry’s Universal Health Coverage (“UHC”) Project Management Office.
Integrated Care Pathways take a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to managing care for individuals with specific needs, in this case individuals with Type I and Type II Diabetes. They outline a patient’s entire care journey, specifying what happens, when, and who is responsible at each stage. This process includes working group sessions and one-on-one interviews with both patients and health service providers. To date 16 patients and 18 health service providers have been interviewed, and three workshops and six focus groups have been held. Participants include patients with lived experience, and specialist health providers from fields such as endocrinology, pharmacy, dietetics, diabetes education, podiatry, and nursing.
"Implementing the Diabetes Integrated Care Pathway, based on the 2023 Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (“JSNA”) findings, is essential for improving patient outcomes and reducing the impact of these conditions on costs and quality of life," says Minister of Health, Kim Wilson. "Collaboration among health system stakeholders is key to understanding patient care journeys, identifying challenges and opportunities, and enhancing care and health outcomes.
Although Bermuda lacks a comprehensive surveillance system for non-communicable diseases, surveys estimate that 13% of the population has diabetes. By working together, we can better manage and prevent metabolic diseases.”
Diabetes was identified in the JSNA as the leading cause for insurance claims in 2021 and the third highest cost of insurance claims. It recommended that Diabetes be one of the ‘priority physical health diseases’ to have an Integrated Care Pathway developed out of the UHC Programme.
“Around the World, all types of Diabetes are increasing. In particular, Type II Diabetes is an extremely common and potentially preventable health issue in Bermuda that must be addressed,” states Dr. Jamieson. “This task, however, can only be successful if undertaken collaboratively across the health system. Within that, the voices of the Patients and the Service Providers play a critical role. With this survey, we would like to hear from as many people living with Type I or II Diabetes as possible. So please take the opportunity to complete it or share it with anyone you know may live with Diabetes. Feedback provided from the completed surveys will inform the development of the Diabetes and Metabolic Disease patient care pathway and assist in implementing solutions to improve experiences and outcomes overall.”
ABOUT THE BERMUDA HEALTH STRATEGY AND UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE:
The Bermuda Health Strategy 2022 – 2027 (“The Health Strategy”) was developed as the next phase of work for the Ministry of Health as it works to achieve the vision of “healthy people in healthy communities”. The Health Strategy provides the frame to shift Bermuda’s health system as it works to implement Universal Health Coverage (“UHC”) and shift to a more people-centred approach to healthcare that focuses on delivering better care that meets the needs of individuals and families today and into the future. Bermuda’s UHC programme is a multi-year, multi-phased initiative that seeks to ensure “all people have equitable access to needed informative, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative essential health services, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that people do not suffer financial hardship when paying for these services and critical medicines.”