QiC diabetes 2021 awards

Team DESMOND win Quality in Care award

Team DESMOND are delighted to have won an award at the Quality in Care Diabetes 2021 awards on Thursday 14th October.

The prestigious UK and Ireland Quality in Care Diabetes awards have been recognising, rewarding and sharing initiatives that improve the quality of life for people living with diabetes since 2011.

A Quality in Care award means an initiative has been recognised by the NHS, patients and industry as improving the quality of life for people living with diabetes.

An exceptional amount of work has been undertaken during the unprecedented pressure of COVID-19 and we are delighted to have been recognised as one of this year’s winners within the Diabetes Education Programmes – People with Diabetes category.

The DESMOND Programme and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

With face-to-face patient diabetes education on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Diabetes Education and Self Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed (DESMOND) team at Leicester Diabetes Centre took various actions. New materials were added to MyDESMOND relating to COVID-19 and diabetes, resilience and emotional wellbeing, ensuring fair access for all. Virtual Delivery Packages were set up for all DESMOND modules. Guidance for educators was written and made available to all DESMOND teams. The DESMOND Academy was launched with virtual workshop support for existing educators, new educator training was redesigned, and Quality Assurance assessment methods were refi ned for virtual delivery.

Judges' comments:

"This highly professional team have submitted a well-crafted and impressive entry. It was clear they helped other services that were in trouble during the pandemic, giving a good example of scalability. The team listened to concerns around access and were responsive to feedback on their virtual and flexible platform. The judges were also impressed with how culturally aware the programmes were, developing them in different languages. They went beyond just translating the programme from face-to-fact to virtual. Outstanding!"

Alison Northern, Implementation Manager, DESMOND represented the team at the awards ceremony, commented:

“A wonderful honour to represent Team DESMOND at the 2021 Quality in Care awards. I am beyond proud that we won! The judge’s comments have made all the hard work truly worth it. A fabulous award for the entire team at DESMOND and the Leicester Diabetes Centre.”