A service in Solihull which has helped locals living with diabetes learn about and manage their condition has been officially recognised at a prestigious awards ceremony.
The Solihull Community Diabetes Service, part of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, has been presented with two awards by charity X-PERT Health at a glittering award ceremony after the results for its patients attending diabetes education sessions in 2013 and 2014 showed impressive results.
Nominated in two categories, the Solihull Community Diabetes Service came second in the ‘best participant attendance score’ category and were highly commended in the ‘largest impact on body weight and waist circumference’ category.
The 10 Year Anniversary Awards Ceremony was held at The Burlington Hotel, Birmingham and the awards were presented by Dr Trudi Deakin, founder and chief executive of X-Pert Health and author of its award-winning programmes. The awards are designed to recognise the best performing of its 84 centres across the UK.
Dr Deakin said: “Organisations like Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust are making a real difference to the lives of so many people with diabetes – well done for carrying the banner and providing the evidence we need to keep pushing diabetes education to the top of the agenda.”
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has a number of diabetes specialist nurses & dietitians who have been trained to become X-PERT Health educators and deliver two of the XPERT programmes – X-PERT Diabetes and X-PERT Insulin. Each is delivered through six weekly two-and-a-half hour sessions, run at a variety of times of the day and venues across Solihull. The programme is designed to be user friendly and is accompanied by a range of easy-to-understand course materials.
Julia Gilroy, lead nurse diabetes specialist & manager at Solihull Community Diabetes Service, said the success was down to the whole team.
She said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have been recognised at the X-PERT Health awards and to have achieved the excellent results we have over the last two years. It really is a team effort and this success is down to the hard work and dedication of both the clinical and administrative staff within the service.
“Achieving positive outcomes for our patients is our primary goal so these awards are recognition that we are hitting this target and we will continue to strive to make a real difference for people with diabetes in Solihull.”
For more information on Solihull Community Diabetes Service visit communityservices.heartofengland.nhs.uk under the Planned Care section or call 0121 770 4432.
