DIABETES NEWS SPRING 2018 Local News from the Children s and Young People s Diabetes Clinic at the Oxford Children s & Horton Hospitals CLINIC STAFFING NEWS Management News There has been a new opportunity to develop research in the department. Moving forward, Dr Rachel Besser will be taking up this opportunity as Research and National Paediatric Diabetes Audit lead and stepping down in her role as Clinical Lead. We would like to thank Dr Besser for all her work in the role as Clinical Lead over the last 2 years, in particular for securing the commissioning of NHS prescribing of the Abbott Freestyle Libre for paediatric patients in Oxfordshire. We would like to welcome Dr Fiona Ryan as the new Clinical Lead. Dr Ryan is well known to many of you, having been a Consultant in the Diabetes Team here for over 14 years and the lead for Paediatric Endocrinology for the past 14 years. Dr Ryan will continue to support the Team in providing excellence of care. We are now in the process of implementing the use of the Libre into routine practice. As you can imagine, this is going to be a big exercise. A letter detailing how this will happen in practice is included with this Newsletter. Other Team Staff Updates: We are delighted to introduce new staff members to our Team from January: Mary Owen, Psychologist Hi, I m Mary Owen. I qualified as a clinical psychologist nearly five years ago from the University of Liverpool and I have been working with children and adults in the Swindon and Wiltshire areas since then. I am very excited to join the Team at the Children s Hospital in Oxford and am looking forward to meeting lots of families in clinic. If you see me around please say hello (contrary to popular belief, psychologists can t actually read minds!) and if you, or anyone in your family, would like some psychological support in managing the many challenges that living with diabetes can throw at you, please let me, or a member of the Team, know. I look forward to meeting you soon!
Claire Bedworth, Dietitian Claire will be joining the Team as a new Paediatric Dietitian and will be taking over from Katy Clarke, who some of you will have seen in clinic. She will be building up her own caseload of patients and is looking forward to starting in April. Emily Denton, Diabetes Specialist Nurse Emily is an experienced children s nurse, who has worked on Bellhouse-Drayson Ward for several years and has been the diabetes link nurse for the past 7 years. She was delighted to take on the secondment opportunity to cover Hannah s maternity leave, and we welcome her warmly into our Team. She has already written to the families she will be looking after over the year. Other families may meet her at education sessions or on the phone. Diana year out I m sorry not to have seen everyone to discuss this with you, and although I have absolutely loved working with you all for the last 5 years, I have been offered a lead diabetes nurse post in the Adult Service based at OCDEM (Oxfordshire Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) at the Churchill Hospital. I have accepted this job as a secondment for a year from 15th May 2018 and hope that this will give me the opportunity to develop some leadership skills and experience, as well as bring some much needed stability and development to the Young Adult Service. I will miss my families very much, but I have every intention of coming back to work with you all again next year. In the meantime, I still hope to take part in things like the Calshot trip and some of the education days and, for those of you who are already in Transition or about to join over the next year, you ll not be rid of me yet! CLINIC NEWS Clinic Time Audit In the autumn we carried out an audit into the time each stage of a clinic appointment takes, from the moment you book in at Reception. One of the results shown is that there can be a delay in the room for the HbA1c and downloading, therefore, delaying when you get to see the doctor. One way to help us speed up this step is for families to do the downloading at home. We appreciate it is another job to remember in busy lives! Pairing a task with something that already happens, or you already do, is a good way to remember. One idea is to use the text reminder you get before clinic as your prompt to download. If you currently do not know how to download at home, or need a connection cable, please ask one of the nurses at your next visit. Thank you.
Patient and Family Experience Questionnaire 2017 Every three years, the Children s Diabetes Team reviews the overall service it provides to children with Type 1 diabetes and their families who attend the clinics at both the Children s Hospital in Oxford and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. Thank you to everyone who completed the questionnaire. We have now analysed the results and are using the information it gave us to improve and develop the service. Families were happy with: The service provided overall; 95% of families would recommend the Oxford Children s Diabetes Team to family and friends. The urgent and general advice given by the Team, both during working hours and out-ofhours. The written and verbal information provided by the Team on all aspects of diabetes and its management. Education sessions, particularly those providing additional information and the opportunity to share experiences with other families. The opportunity to take part in research, and families are keen to know about the studies we are involved in. Clinic experiences: - Room for improvement! Waiting times at clinic; 63% of you reported waiting less than 30 minutes to see the doctor. Whilst this is an improvement (it was 36% in 2013/14), many of you are still waiting too long. We are trying hard to ensure that all families are seen at their appointment time by the doctor. This is helped by families arriving at clinic 15 to 30 minutes before their appointment time to ensure their child has had their height and weight recorded, an HbA1c measurement taken and blood glucose meter and/or insulin pump downloaded. The downloading can take a long time. Downloading at home the evening before clinic would help us to speed this process up as much as possible. Seeing the same doctor; most families had seen 2 or 3 different doctors over the last year. We are trying to improve this by identifying the doctor your child saw last time they attended clinic and, if that doctor is available, ensuring they see them again. If this means waiting longer to see that doctor, we will endeavour to let you know so you can choose to wait or to see a different doctor instead. There are certain parts of our service where improvements to your experience are outside of our control - parking, for instance! The OUH Trust is working towards improving this for all patients using their hospital sites, but this is a slow process. From the written comments in the questionnaire, we are even more aware that, particularly as children get older, minimising time off school to attend appointments and/or education sessions is important. Parents also have to juggle taking time off work and looking after other children to attend. Our aim is to offer all families the best service possible. We want to reassure you that we take all your comments into account when considering how to plan the service to ensure every child and family receives the very best care.
OTHER NEWS #TheBig1 Event We would like to let you know about an event that Diabetes UK are planning for young people (16-26) with Type 1 diabetes that you may be interested in. Details are as follows: Where: Swindon Town Football Club When: Saturday, 16 June 2018, 10:30am-4pm Who: Anyone aged 16-26 years old living with Type 1 diabetes. You can also bring a plus one (if you are under 18 you will need to bring an adult). The event is an opportunity to meet other young people and to get chatting about the things young people care about, including: How to keep on top of your diabetes when you re backpacking across Europe. The best way to bring up diabetes on a date. How to cope with the days when you feel rubbish. How to make sure diabetes doesn t get in the way of having a great time. There will be an Olympic athlete living with Type 1 there to deliver a session, plus lunch and snacks will be provided. If you are interested in attending, you will need to register for your FREE place at eu.eventscloud.com/thebig1. For more information please call 01823 448260 or email south.west@diabetes.org.uk. National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) Please find enclosed with this Newsletter details about the NPDA. There has been a delay in reporting the 2016/2017 audit outcomes from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, but this should be available soon. Once the results have been published, we will send you highlights of this report. We are now cleaning the data for submission for the 2017/2018 audit year. If you have any questions about the NPDA, please feel free to ask a member of the Diabetes Team when you come to clinic.
Airport Security For quite a while now, it has not been possible to take fluids of more than 100ml through the security area of an airport. Some families with a child with diabetes have been able to avoid this by talking to the security staff and producing a letter from clinic. Increasingly though, security staff have been enforcing this rule for all passengers. We have, therefore, amended our travel letter and advise that you carry dextrose tablets and/or Glucogel through the security area. It is possible to buy drinks once you are through security and in the Departure Lounge. Visiting the Accident & Emergency Departments As part of on-going quality improvement, we look at inpatient data and visits to the Emergency Departments of the John Radcliffe and Horton Hospitals by children and young people with diabetes. The aim of looking at these numbers is to see if there is anything we can do in the future to help you manage illness in the home, if possible. The visits may be for a diabetes-related problem or for something quite separate, such as a broken arm! If the stay is short, we are not always made aware of the visit by staff in the busy Emergency Departments. We are, therefore, asking if you will let us know if your child has visited the Emergency Department or been admitted for a short stay by calling the nurses office on 01865 228736/7. Thank you. FUNDRAISING Congratulations to members of our Children's Diabetes Team Dr Taffy Makaya, Alison West and Sarah Chapman, who took part in the Oxford Mail OX5 RUN! Together they have raised over 1,400, which will go towards the Oxford Children's Hospital Charity. Very well done to Mark Garrett, who completed the London Marathon in 5 hrs and 5mins, despite the heat - fantastic achievement! He also raised over 500 for JDRF.
RESEARCH A big thank you to everyone taking part in one of our research studies. We really appreciate your time and samples! Currently we are recruiting to the Fat/Protein Study, and there are other opportunities too. If you are interested in knowing more about the studies we offer, please contact Clare, Loraine or Ali on 01865 234905 or ask your nurse to put us in touch.