Some of the very best healthcare professionals working in diabetes were recognised at the recent Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes Awards, which highlighted a great range of innovative work in improving outcomes for patients. Now in its eighth year, QiC Diabetes rewards initiatives undertaken in the UK and Ireland to improve outcomes and quality of life for people living with diabetes – spanning people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and adults’ and children’s services.
Hosted by QiC Diabetes partner Sanofi at its UK headquarters in Guildford, the night offered a celebration of great work done by NHS healthcare professionals – and of course a few selfies with TV Doc and compère Dr Hilary Jones.
NHS England’s Associate National Clinical Director, Diabetes, Partha Kar kick-started the evening with a special award, the NHS England Outstanding Contribution Award. The winner was Dr Paru King, who was awarded the accolade for her exceptional work in improving diabetes care. Dr King is a consultant physician at Derby Hospitals, leading the diabetes and obstetrics service. As one of the first diabetes UK clinical champions, Dr King has many achievements under her belt, including leading the award-winning PROCEED project, the first integrated service for preconception care. She also launched the National Diabetes and Pregnancy Conference, supporting its development into an annual event.
The most heartfelt category of the evening was undoubtedly The People’s Award, which was presented to Beth Baldwin, who lost her son at age 13 to undiagnosed type 1 diabetes back in 2015.Since then, Beth has campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of early symptoms of the disease, launching the Know Type 1 campaign in June last year and raising more than £70,000. Over 1 million people have seen the campaign, and since then Beth’s tireless campaigning has led the Welsh Assembly to make ten wide-ranging recommendations to increase early identification of type 1 diabetes.
The Outstanding Educator in Diabetes Award was another decision warmly received by the assembled NHS professionals, recognising Emma Green as a leader of excellence in education in a specialist or community setting. Emma holds diabetes education training for teachers based across Leicestershire, which are held once a month for a total of 40 teachers.
This year also saw a team of five diabetes nurse specialists win the Diabetes Healthcare Professional of the Year award after launching a forum on Facebook with almost 1,000 members, all of whom are diabetes specialists. The forum has allowed these healthcare professionals to share best practice, and offer advice and support with content from weekly blogs by experts via this network.
Also among the winners of the evening was TREND-UK, an initiative that was launched back in 2010 by four nurses as a channel delivering practical resources and educational meetings for both diabetes healthcare professionals and people with diabetes. The initiative won the prestigious Judges’ Special Award, whereby projects can only be nominated by judges, and cannot be self-submitted.
The judges said: “TREND is a fantastic achievement. All four diabetes nurse consultants are in full-time posts and within a decade have shaped an organisation that raises the profile of DSNs and provided a fantastic range of resources. “TREND has not only produced a lot of high- quality material, but the application suggests they are continuously moving forward, looking at new collaborations and areas of development.”
Other notable winners included the Leeds Children’s Hospital and DigiBete CIC, which was named winner of the Type 1 Specialist Service for Children, Young People and Emerging Adults, for its work on the DigiBete Website. The judges praised the resource for offering high-quality practical advice, not only in line with national guidance but in a form that is appealing to children. The judges said: “The DigiBete Website offers real potential for this service to make a difference in helping to raise standards and produce more consistent guidance across the country.”
The Diabetes Team Initiative of the Year, Adults, went to the North East Essex Diabetes Service for the Virtual Ward to help housebound patients self-administer insulin.
Meanwhile The Diabetes Team Initiative of the Year, Children, was awarded to Poole Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, which demonstrated improvement in diabetes control in patients aged 15-23 years.
The Best Practice Dissemination and Sustainability award went to Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust for its work on The DICE Programme. This initiative won a QiC award back in 2015 for ‘Best Improvement in Quality of Inpatient Care Initiative’. By building on these results, along with recruiting specialist nurses and the roll-out of perioperative projects, the Trust saw the programme triumph once again.