Twenty healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, have been appointed as clinical champions for Diabetes UK.

The programme supports healthcare professionals to become strong local leaders, working to address the significant variation in patient care and treatment for people living with diabetes in the UK. The new cohort of champions will receive two years of training from Diabetes UK alongside their clinical work, to help them identify improvements and drive vital change in diabetes services in their local areas.

One of the new champions is Clair Ranns, medicines optimisation pharmacist for NHS Leeds North CCG. “The clinical champion role will provide me with the opportunity to further develop high quality and consistent prescribing in diabetes across Leeds,” she says.

“In particular, I’d like to improve the uptake and implementation of the recently updated Leeds prescribing guidance for type 2 diabetes to ensure good quality prescribing and equal access to the newer oral agents for the management of type 2 diabetes.

“I would also like to improve insulin prescribing in primary care by devising a set of minimum standards for general practice, exploring the role the patient and community pharmacists could play in helping to implement these standards.”

The clinical champions programme was launched by the charity in 2014, in partnership with Novo Nordisk. There are now 65 clinical champions across the UK. Anyone interested in becoming a Diabetes UK clinical champion for the 2018-2020 intake should contact the organisation.