Booking service contract awarded to Spirit Healthcare
Spirit to deliver new integrated diabetes education booking service across 12 south London CCGs
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 a three-year contract to Spirit Healthcare to help people living with diabetes select and book the most-appropriate education courses.
From October, 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 and 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.
Spirit is working collaboratively with Priority Digital Health, a digital solutions provider based in Cambridge, to develop and deliver the booking service.
We believe passionately that education is the key to empowering people to take control of their diabetes
GPs and healthcare professionals will be able to refer people living with diabetes to the service and people with Type 2 diabetes will be able to refer themselves and book their course online.
Caroline Gilmartin, director of integrated commissioning at NHS Southwark CCG, said: “We are delighted to have awarded this contract and we believe it 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 wellbeing while living with a long-term condition.”
Tim Loveridge, managing director of clinical services, added: “We are honoured to have been selected to partner with the south London CCGs and the Health Innovation Network to help people in south London access a broader, more-accessible range of diabetes education services.
“We believe passionately that education is the key to empowering people to take control of their diabetes.”
The 12 south London CCGs are Bexley CCG, Bromley CCG, Croydon CCG, Greenwich CCG, Kingston CCG, Lambeth CCG, Lewisham CCG, Merton CCG, Richmond CCG, Southwark CCG, Sutton CCG and Wandsworth CCG.