Diabetes foot assessment
Forty-five minutes, once a year, bulk billed with a GP care plan. Diabetic foot ulcers are largely preventable, and catching a problem early is what prevention actually looks like in this practice.
Ask your GP for a Chronic Disease Management plan. It covers five allied health visits a calendar year, and we bulk bill the podiatry portion so there is nothing to pay. Without a plan the assessment is $130.
What gets tested
Sensation testing
Monofilament at ten sites per foot plus vibration perception. Loss of protective sensation is painless, so most people have no idea it has happened.
Circulation assessment
Pedal pulses, handheld doppler, and toe pressures where indicated. If supply is compromised, the whole management plan changes.
Skin, nail & pressure check
Callus, dry skin, nail deformity and any break in the skin. A callus over a bony prominence on an insensate foot is a pre-ulcer, and offloading it is the whole job.
Footwear inspection
We look inside your shoes — wear patterns, internal seams, anything that has found its way in.
Risk rating & plan
Low, moderate or high, with a review interval of twelve, six or three months to match. The plan goes to your GP, and you get a copy of what to watch for at home.
Ring today, not next week, if you see
A break in the skin on a foot with reduced sensation is an emergency even when it does not hurt — the absence of pain is the problem, not the reassurance.
Any break in the skin on your foot
A blister you did not feel forming
Redness, warmth or swelling
A callus that has gone dark underneath
Discharge or odour from a wound
A nail that has become painful or discoloured
The numbers behind the assessment
General figures about diabetes and foot health — not a claim about anyone’s own outcome here.
Of diabetes-related amputations are preceded by a foot ulcer.
People with diabetes develop a foot complication at some point.
Cost of the annual assessment with a GP care plan.
Slots held free every day for diabetic foot emergencies.
First appointment usually inside two days
No referral needed. Two slots are held free every day for diabetic foot emergencies.