East London NHS Foundation Trust Community Health Services (CHS) were Highly Commended in the Improvements in Diabetes Care Using Data category at the QiC Diabetes Awards. Panels from the NHS, industry and the diabetes community selected the final award winners.
The Trust's CHS team, across east London and Bedfordshire, created a quality improvement (QI) project, Insulin Self Management/Oral Diabetes Medicines Maximisation Project Team, empowering patients with diabetes to self-administer insulin. The project was led by Bedfordshire CHS, with involvement from Tower Hamlets CHS, Newham CHS and other system partners.
The Tower Hamlets QI project team included Juliana Dike, Charity Okoli, Fatima Hafesji, Ibrahim Patel, Luisa Duran Murallas Nike Bademosi, Ellie John, Gemma Blake-Ryder, with QI Coaches Julie Archer, Foujiya Sultana, Andreas Oresanya and QI sponsor, Dr Alex Harborne.
The project resulted in various service users being successfully discharged from the district nursing caseload as they became confident in self-managing their own insulin. This additionally freed up district nursing time while creating a more collaborative approach to diabetes management.
Juliana Dike said: "We should continue to reinforce empowerment and self-care across our services. This project also reflects our Trust’s commitment to the NHS 10-year Long Term Plan, shifting focus from sickness to prevention. I hope we can continue to build on this valuable opportunity."
You can learn more about the project and the steps taken to get to its result, on the QI website here.