The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus is increasing. Patients with this disease are prone to devastating complications, many of which can be prevented or reduced by appropriate interventions in primary care. With quality high on the governments agenda and the current staged publication of a National Service Framework (NSF) for diabetes, primary health care teams will be expected to playing a leading role in the delivery of high quality care; particularly as secondary care will not be able to cope with this workload. Improved quality of care should be attainable in diabetes, based upon implementing agreed and justified protocols in combination with audit to evaluate performance and guide future changes. This title will provide primary health care teams with relevant and up-to-date guidance on how to improve the care that they provide to their patients with diabetes. This encompasses both clinical and organisational information, and includes the NSFs standards, and guidance provided by National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). The author of this title works full-time in primary care, as part of team that delivers diabetic care, and therefore understands and has addressed the particular needs of all the members of the team, based upon his own experiences.