Diabetes doctor wins award for outstanding commitment to patient care
A University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Diabetes Consultant has received a prestigious national award for her outstanding contribution to diabetes services.
Diabetes Specialist Dr Paru King has played a major role in advancing the care offered to diabetic patients in Derby over the last 20 years; in particular pregnant women with diabetes.
During this time, Dr King has led a number of different projects targeted at supporting people with diabetes, including a service that has helped reduced the number of stillbirths in Derby by providing pre-pregnancy care for women with diabetes.
This commitment to ensuring diabetic patients get quality care has now been recognised at the recent Quality in Care Diabetes Awards, with Dr King, who is a judge at the awards, winning the NHS England Outstanding Contribution for Services in Diabetes Award.
She said: “Everyone in the health service does what we do because we want to help people and make a difference but it is wonderful that these awards exist to recognise the efforts of staff. As a judge, I went to Guildford to present at the awards, so it was a complete surprise to be presented with the NHS England award. It was a very proud moment, although I do want to share this accolade with all of my amazing colleagues who have helped make such a difference to our patients.”
Dr King previously won a Health Services Journal Team Award in 2013 for her team’s work leading integrated diabetes services in Derby, where GP practices and specialists work together to allow more people to access specialist care closer to their homes.
She has also gained national recognition for the development of the PROCEED (PRecOnception Care for DiabEtes in DErby) service, which provides targeted pre-pregnancy care for women with diabetes.
Diabetes and maternity specialists work within the community to ensure diabetic women looking to become pregnant access the right information and support as part of the project, which was the first pre-conception project for diabetes in the UK.
The project has helped reduce the number of stillbirths and babies born with abnormalities since its launch in 2012, with the model engaging 60% of women before pregnancy in Derby, compared with a third of women who access traditional hospital based services.
PROCEED has also saved around £70,000 through reducing the amount of time spent in hospital and fewer babies needing care from the baby unit.
The Quality in Care Diabetes Awards were held in Guildford on Thursday, 18 October.