Local Diabetes Patients benefit from New Equipment

The Diabetes Centre at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital had been kitted out with brand new equipment to help provide a better experience for people with diabetes who use the diabetes centre.

The new equipment purchased includes a cloud-based specialist diabetes support program called DIASEND, Smart Pix devices for patients on types of insulin pumps to connect with DIASEND from home, a Spot Vital Signs Device to help better evaluate a patient’s condition if the centre staff have cause for concern, and two display cases to exhibit old diabetes care equipment, used by people with diabetes in the past, and modern food models.

The equipment has been purchased with charitable funds from The Health Tree Foundation (HTF) which is the official charity for Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG).

A number of wishes were made to HTF’s Circle of Wishes by diabetes specialist nurse, Caroline Andrews on behalf of the diabetes team, asking for the different equipment for the patients that use the diabetes centre.

Wishes can be put forward by patients, visitors, and staff. Wishes aim to go over and above, providing a better patient experience within the hospital.

The DIASEND is based at the Hospital. It allows people with diabetes to download a range of diabetes technology at home; also the diabetes team can download the results during a consultation and review jointly with the person with diabetes. It provides data on blood glucose meters and insulin pumps.

The same information is available to both the person with diabetes and the diabetes team. This equity of information is important as the person with diabetes and the diabetes team staff work as together partners in their care.

Making this information available both home and hospital allows diabetes health professionals to have up to date information to ensure appropriate care for their patients wherever and however they make contact with the diabetes team. This could save trips to the hospital for patients with diabetes.

The Smart Pix connects to insulin pumps to DIASEND from a patient’s home. It will allow them to download their information on their insulin pumps and handsets so that the diabetes team at the hospital can review their data and advise accordingly.

The Spot Vital Signs Device is a piece of equipment that allows diabetes health professionals to take a fuller assessment of patients, including pulse, blood pressure, and oxygen saturations.

It will enable the diabetes team to assess patients in the Centre if there are concerns about their health. It will enable the accurate taking of observations for routine monitoring that will be needed for patient records.

This piece of equipment will allow diabetes health professionals to provide better advice, based on the information provided by the Spot Vital Signs Device.

The Two Display Cases are being used to display old diabetes equipment that used to be used to treat diabetes. This has been donated by patients over the past 25 years, who wished to show today's diabetes patients what advancements in diabetes care have been made over the years.

The display cases will ensure that the old equipment will be preserved and that it can be viewed by today’s patients. The display cases are located in the Doreen Grantham Education Room, which is used to carry out training and education for members of staff and also for people with diabetes, their families, and carers.

The modern food models also on display are used in some of the many interactive education sessions that are provided to people with diabetes and staff.

Diabetes specialist nurse, Caroline Andrews said, “Thank you to the Health Tree Foundation for supporting our wishes, local people with diabetes will greatly benefit from the improvements in care and education provided by making these wishes come true.”

Community champion for HTF, Lauren Alexander said, “We have done a lot of fundraising for the diabetes centre at Grimsby Hospital, it’s a brilliant cause. These wishes are going to make a great difference to local diabetes patient’s experience.”