Winner
West Hampshire Community Diabetes Service ‘Reaching and Teaching’
by West Hampshire Community Diabetes Service/Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
In a redesign of the diabetes treatment pathway, adult patients with diabetes now have a single point of access and are triaged by a diabetes nurse telephoning each patient. The service provides type 1 and 2 education and multidisciplinary clinical appointments throughout West Hampshire, in addition to a nurse-led telephone advice line open Monday to Friday 9-5pm. There is also a primary care education programme in place to support GP and practice nurse initiation and adjustment of insulin and GLP-1 therapies. The infrastructure is built around a remotely accessible IT package. Feedback about the education courses and appointments has been positive, while there have been improvements in the number of patients achieving glycaemic targets and a reduction in hypoglycaemia admission rates.
Judges' comments
"This initiative really stood out as an integrated care model, with impressive patient involvement, good branding, and a hugely successful roll out with immediate results that are saving money and delivering a better service to a greater number of patients."
Highly commended
The Great Britain diabetes online community (#gbdoc)
by Paul Buchanan, www.gbdoc.co.uk (#gbdoc)
The Great Britain diabetes online community is a social media community based on Twitter that makes use of the hashtag #gbdoc. It exists to empower, connect, support and educate the community of people with diabetes in the UK who can join in on Twitter by following and using the hashtag. #gbdoc is a free to use, peer-led community initiative designed to reach out to people with diabetes and create a community of self-help, encouragement and support – to learn from shared experience. Every Wednesday at 9pm there is a moderated tweet chat about all things diabetes. In 2013 #gbdoc was formally endorsed by the NHS as “a safe and trusted resource for people with diabetes and health care professionals”. The community continues to grow, and there have been over 1,500 contributors in the nine months since launch.
Commended
Living a healthy life: an education, monitoring and screening programme for adults with learning disabilities
by Enfield Community Services, Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust
People who have learning disabilities can have difficulty making lifestyle choices, potentially leading to an increased risk of diabetes. The ‘Living a healthy life’ programme provides information about diabetes and healthy living education to groups of adults with learning disabilities in Enfield. Additionally, annual screening of random blood glucose levels is offered to people with learning disabilities to identify anyone who may be at risk of diabetes. They are then referred for diagnosis and management. Patient feedback has been positive and people with diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance have been found early in the treatment process.