City Celebrates
Bradford Diabetes Dietitians were runners up in the City PCT "Oscars" awards at the City Celebrates Day, an event organised to celebrate good practice within the PCT. Over 60 nominations were submitted and the dietitians were thrilled to have their hard work recognised.
Bradford Diabetes Dietitians are made up of eight registered dietitians, providing services across 3 Bradford PCT's and the hospital trust. They form a small, dedicated, specialist team within the larger nutrition and dietetic department located within Bradford Teaching Hospitals Trust.
The recognition was received in the category of "Improving the Pateint Experience" for the teams innovative ideas to improve access for patients. These included monthly supermarket tours held in Morrisons, Tesco and Asda stores across the city. The benefits of the tours are that patients are able to refer themselves allowing improved, open access to the dietitian in a quick and timely fashion. They do not replace a clinical consultation but are an opportunity for patients to receive practical advice in a familiar setting. The tours have been well received by patients who have told us when we have evaluated the tours "the tour has given me more confidence when doing my shopping to ensure I buy the right foods for my diabetes."
Other innovations have included Drop-In education sessions at Barkerend Health Centre and Manningham. These sessions were designed again to improve access to patients and meet the targets set by the NSF for diabetes. The drop in sessions are run in conjunction with the Primary Care Diabetes nurses and City PCT Podiatry team and were developed as a patient centred education initiative, giving individuals with diabetes the opportunity to access a dietitian in an informal setting and enabling them to ask questions or be provided with advice and education out side of the traditional clinical environment. All of these services are supported by a telephone helpline.
Helen Mitchell, Senior Dietitian for Diabetes who has been leading the service developments for the PCT explained, "this was a good opportunity for us to promote our services for patients as well as raise awareness of the work we are doing to improve access to dietitians for patients in the city."
