IT was quite a night for Hillingdon Hospital at the national Quality in Care Programme Awards when it was highly commended in three categories for its work on diabetes.

The children and young people’s paediatric diabetes team was honoured for its schools-based MDT Clinics, involving pupils with Type One diabetes.

The hospital began to offer the outreach service to youngsters following poor attendance rates for hospital appointments and a desire to meet youngsters on their own ground with minimal disruption to schooling.

The team of consultants, specialist nurses, dieticians and a psychologist has seen non-attendance tumble since moving into three trial schools Judges described it as simple and effective and transferable and replicable in other areas.

The Diabetes in Care Homes project looked at improving the service for patients in homes including a staff training programme.

A Space to Think was a joint initiative between Hillingdon and North West London NHS Trust, which employed the use of a psychologist to help tackle the non-medical challenges of managing diabetes.

To date, 55 patients have been through the programme.