PCDS Annual Report 2014–15

Mission statement
The Society supports every primary care healthcare professional to deliver high-quality, clinically effective care, in order to improve the lives of people living with diabetes.

As a member you will benefit from access to the following items:

• High-quality education tailored to your individual needs.
• Up-to-date evidence-based information to enhance your care delivery.
• Networking with other professionals at local, national and international events, as well as on the web.
• The Diabetes & Primary Care journal, as well as a variety of tailored online resources.

Audit and research projects, designed to improve outcomes for people living with diabetes.

Together as a Society we will:

• Share best practice in delivering quality diabetes care.
• Be a unique voice for all professionals working in primary care intent on improving standards of diabetes care.
• Show leadership at local, national and international level, collaborating with all organisations involved in promoting high-quality diabetes care across the UK and Ireland.
• Promote and participate in high-quality research and audit.

The PCDS Committee members are the trustees of the charity. We meet formally several time a year to discuss current issues affecting people living with diabetes and their families and support those delivering their care including carers and healthcare professionals. Our aim is to improve diabetes care and knowledge. Some of the activities we have been involved in over the year 2014–15 are listed below.

All trustees work full-time or part-time for either the NHS or HSE (Republic of Ireland) and roles currently represented within the committee include GPs, diabetes specialist nurses, practice nurses, and a pharmacist. The PCDS continues to be chaired by Dr David Millar-Jones.

The PCDS has charity status in England and Wales (Charity Commission) and Scotland (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator). Our Committee represents what we call the five nations: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Although the health needs of people with diabetes from the five nations are mostly similar, we find that there are some differences, particularly relating to service design, and these are addressed by our national subcommittees.

PCDS Alumni Committee
The PCDS Alumni Committee continue to ensure that the quality of PCDS service and education is maintained and supported. The alumni are previous members of the PCDS committee who continue to have a central role in political aspects, research and delivery of diabetes care and education. They include Roger Gadsby, Paul Downie, Alan Hayes, Neil Munro, Eugene Hughes and Tony O’Sullivan.

Activities
Advancement in education
The PCDS trustees believe that one of the ways to make a real difference to the health and well-being of people with diabetes, their families and carers is by advancing the knowledge of the healthcare professionals who are delivering diabetes care.

Over the year 2014–15 the PCDS:

• Further developed the PCDS website www.pcdsociety.org, with links to the continuing professional development (CPD) modules, conference information, journals, news and events.
• Expanded its membership body to over 10000 healthcare professionals.
• Continued to provide up-to-date, evidence-based diabetes education through its journal Diabetes & Primary Care, which is free and circulated to 16000 people.
• Continued to produce Diabetes Distilled, an e-newsletter emailed to members on a monthly basis to provide an overview of relevant stories.
• Built on its programme of CPD modules, with key topics updated by a range of experts. Each CPD module has a set of questions to test the participants’ knowledge after reading and, upon completion, a certificate can be downloaded or printed to use as evidence of ongoing learning. The modules are used as teaching aids for groups of healthcare professionals and are published in the Journal. They can be accessed at www.cpd.diabetesonthenet.com.
• Worked with other journals including: Practice Nurse, the Journal of Diabetes Nursing, The Diabetic Foot Journal, Diabetes Digest, the Pharmaceutical Journal, Pulse and GP.
• Participated in updates and webcasts to reach a wider audience.
• Provided diabetes education to over 1000 delegates attending one of the PCDS conferences (as laid out below).

Conferences

• The 10th National Conference (Birmingham, 20–21 November 2014) attracted 588 delegates. Topics included mastering treatment choices, detecting and managing complications of diabetes, and gaining insight into the difficulties of diagnosis. The poster presentations were of an exceptionally high standard with healthcare professional sharing best practice and innovation. The conference also serves as a link between other organisations involved with diabetes care, with representations from Primary Care Diabetes Europe, Diabetes UK, structured education and other teaching organisations including the University of Warwick and University of Leicester.
• The 8th All-Irish Conference (Dublin, 9 May 2015) had an excellent attendance of 152 delegates. The topics covered included pregnancy and maternity care in diabetes, optimising insulin injection techniques and diabetes prevention in primary care.
• The 7th Scottish Conference (Glasgow, 1 October 2014) had 164 delegates. Themes that were covered included the latest evidence supporting new and established therapies, individualised care in older people and chronic kidney disease.
• The 6th Welsh Conference (Cardiff, 21 May 2015) was attended by 173 delegates. Topics included Welsh initiatives to improve diabetes via primary care, how to identify and address risk in hard-to-reach groups, and treatment intensification.
• The 4th Northern Irish Conference (Templepatrick, 25 September 2014) had 181 delegates in attendance. Themes included sexual dysfunction in diabetes, debunking the myths and misconceptions of diabetes, and IT innovations in diabetes care in Northern Ireland.

Other educational events

• The 9th National Conference for Intermediate Diabetes Care Teams (Birmingham, 19 June 2015) had 133 delegates in attendance. Sessions covered working with medicines managers, interpreting test results, and the pharmacology of the heart and lungs and their effect on diabetes.
• The SMART updates in Diabetes were continued in 2015 with events in London (26 June 2015 – 224 delegates) and Birmingham (8 July 2015 – 106 delegates) and provided delegates with an approach to individualised care in every consultation.

Advancement of health and saving lives
The trustees believe that working in collaboration with other organisations, charities, and academic and government bodies is an effective way to draw together knowledge and expertise  which benefits people with diabetes and makes a positive impact in the delivery of diabetes care. In the year 2014–15, the trustees worked with the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD), Diabetes UK, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians, NICE, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Institute for Diabetes in Older People, TREND-UK, the Welsh Endocrine and Diabetes Society, the National Service Advisory Group for Wales and the Diabetes Implementation Group for Wales.

Our specific work during 2014–15 included the following.

• Development of e-learning modules, including the Six-Steps to Insulin Safety module. In June 2015, the PCDS, in association with TREND-UK, launched an insulin safety e-learning module for healthcare professionals, which covers the safe prescribing, dispensing and administration of insulin, with the overall aim of reducing insulin errors in clinical practice.
• We supported the continuing work of the Parliamentary and Stakeholders Diabetes Think Tank, which is collaboration between healthcare professions, parliament and industry.
• We continued to feed in to the All Party Parliamentary Group for diabetes, which has representations from the Department of Health, House of Lords, healthcare professionals, academic institutes, diabetes charities and patient groups, and meets to discuss ways to improve diabetes care and the lives of people living with diabetes.
• The National Diabetes Audit (NDA) Partnership Board, of which the PCDS is a part, launched the next phase of the NDA for Adults. The consortium of Diabetes UK, the NHS Information Centre, Diabetes Health Intelligence and the PCDS is committed to ensuring that the next phase of the NDA will continue to progress as it engages with clinicians and people with diabetes to work towards meeting the needs of the diabetes community. We believe that the audit is an important tool to ensure universal care and that standards are maintained, and continue to support the audit and advertise its findings.

Advancement of science
The PCDS believes that quality research is vital in providing evidence-based diabetes care. The PCDS research subcommittee met during the year to look at ways of supporting or taking part in research. Ongoing research activities for the year included:

• The Hypoglycaemia Study, a prospective study aimed at providing robust data on the self-reported frequency and severity of hypoglycaemia in a national population with type 2 diabetes managed in primary care. This study is now reaching its final stages with hope for analysis and publication within the next 12 months.

The PCDS continued to offer support to healthcare professionals undertaking educational activities and research by providing guidance and bursary awards up to £1000 (for more details, see http://www.pcdsociety.org/research).

PCDS was an active stakeholder for NICE in matters on diabetes. The committee was instrumental in leading the response that an urgent review of the proposed updated type 2 diabetes NICE guidelines was required. This critique was supported by ABCD, TREND-UK and the British Medical Journal.

Plans for the future
The PCDS Committee proposed, over the following year, to:

• Fulfil the PCDS mission statement.
• Provide up-to-date, evidence-based education for healthcare professionals through our journals, conferences, CPD modules and website.
• Meet the needs of the “five nations” through the subcommittees.
• Support research in the ongoing Hypoglycaemia Study.
• Look at ways to further support healthcare professionals working in care homes.
• Collaborate with other professional organisations, charities, governmental bodies and pharmaceutical companies to support healthcare professional working in the field of diabetes and improve diabetes care for people with diabetes and their families and carers.