Twelve south London Clinical Commissioning Groups, led by NHS Southwark CCG, along with the Health Innovation Network, the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) for south London have awarded Spirit Healthcare to help people living with diabetes to select and book the most appropriate diabetes education course for them.
From October 2018, for the first-time, people with diabetes will be offered the choice of any diabetes education course available across south London.
This will give them a much wider range of course location and timing options. It will provide the best possibility of increasing attendance rates and helping people with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes to take more control of their own health.
Across south London records show that approximately 165,000 people have diabetes, and this is growing significantly every year. With current attendance rates for diabetes education lower than 10%, the partners led by NHS Southwark CCG, sought a solution to increase uptake of new, accessible education services. During the three years of the new contract, over 40,000 people are expected to benefit from the ability to access a wider range of courses in any part of south London.
Caroline Gilmartin, Director of Integrated Commissioning NHS Southwark CCG, comments: “We are delighted to have awarded this contract to Spirit. They really understood our vision for this service and we believe this is a great opportunity to get many more people attending diabetes education courses giving them the skills and information to make positive lifestyle changes, take more control of their health and ultimately helping them to improve their health and well-being, whilst living with a long-term condition.”
