Page 8 - Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Connect Summer 2019

8 LEEDS TEACHING HOSPITALS NHS TRUST - WWW.LEEDSTH.NHS.UK
Leading the way in diabetes care
Leading the way in
diabetes care
Last year Leeds Children’s Hospital was named as an international reference centre for diabetes care as part of the SWEET initiative which brings together more than 30 countries to improve the care of children with diabetes worldwide.
Flash Glucose Monitoring available for all thanks to Leeds expertise
Leeds Children’s Hospital holds a number of key roles at national level meaning that many decisions around the commissioning of health care or new technologies have been informed by our expert clinicians.
Last year Dr Fiona Campbell, consultant diabetes paediatrician worked with Diabetes UK on developing guidelines for the FreeStyle Libre system.
Patients with Type 1 Diabetes have to closely monitor their blood glucose levels by doing a finger-prick blood test several times
a day. The FreeStyle Libre system instead uses a small sensor
the size of a £2 coin on the patient’s upper arm and a separate touchscreen reader device. When the reader device is swiped
Leeds Children’s Hospital received full accreditation as an international centre of reference last year and is now only of only three in the UK in this
specialist field. The hospital had to demonstrate that we operate with the highest levels of clinical practice including working with highly skilled nurses, dietitians and psychologists as well as a commitment to sharing and analysing diabetes data, and close links with other national and international paediatric diabetes centres.
close to the sensor, the sensor transmits both an instantaneous glucose level and eight-hour trend graph to the reader. This means that the patient knows when to inject their insulin and they can keep much better control of their diabetes.
In November, NHS England pledged to make the system available on prescription to all eligible Type 1 Diabetes patients in England thanks in part to Fiona’s work with Diabetes UK.
Being part of the SWEET programme means that our hospital can not only benefit from international research but can work with other hospitals from around the world to data and outcomes; combining forces to tackle the biggest challenges in diabetes medicine, and in improving care for rare forms of diabetes.
Not content with this accolade the paediatric diabetes team also won the Quality in Diabetes Care Award alongside Digibete and was shortlisted in the BMJ Awards.