Dr Parijat De, Diabetes Clinical Lead at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, has won the prestigious title Diabetes Healthcare Professional of the Year at the Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes 2016 National Awards.
Following online voting on the Quality in Care’s website, Dr De Parijat has been selected by the public to be the Diabetes Healthcare Professional of the Year 2016. He was nominated by his peers and was up against stiff competition from other well respected diabetes professionals nationally.
“I feel very privileged to receive this award. This recognition really motivates me to continue my work in delivering safe and effective care and develop more initiatives within a much needed disease area. My goals are to improve inpatient diabetes care, reduce insulin errors and improve diabetes knowledge amongst all healthcare professionals,” Dr Parijat said.
Dr Parijat is also the Clinical Champion for Diabetes UK. One of his many successful projects includes improving the protocol to better manage DKA (a serious complication of diabetes when the body produces high level of blood acids called ketones). Following the release of the abbreviated and revised protocol, the length of stay in hospital of DKA patients has reduced significantly by nearly days as a result of better management.
The judges of the award commented: “Within a span of one year as Clinical Lead, Dr De has brought about numerous changes both within the diabetes team and the way diabetes patients are managed in hospital.
“He has led the in-patient diabetes team, as a THINK GLUCOSE lead and champion, focusing particularly on patient safety and safe use of insulin, through numerous simple innovations (new pathways, email alerts, error notifications), improving education of nurses/junior doctors and multi-disciplinary working in delivering safe and effective diabetes care within the hospital as evidenced by positive audit results and surveys.”
Dr Mike Baxter, Diabetes Therapy Lead, Sanofi Medical, said: “Sanofi Diabetes are pleased to support the QiC Programme again in 2016 and to be part of recognising and valuing those individuals, teams, Trusts and partnerships who demonstrate quality in care for their patients with diabetes. We are especially keen to see evidence of quality improvement in the six dimensions of quality – safety, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centred, equitable and timely.”
Gaining QiC recognition means an initiative has been highlighted by the NHS, patients and industry as improving the quality of life for people living with diabetes.
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