Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of Spirit Healthcare’s Empower programme on inequalities in diabetes care across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Jane Ellison
NHS England advises that the three clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland decided to commission a diabetes education programme collectively from April 2016 to ensure that diabetes care was being provided equitably across the area. The diabetes education programme was put out to tender and Spirit Healthcare was the successful bidder with its EMPOWER programme.
The EMPOWER programme, which is based on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, is designed to reduce inequalities in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The procurement was overseen by an Equality Lead from the CCGs to ensure patients’ needs were being met.
The CCGs will be monitoring the delivery of the contract and the uptake of the course. The service has been procured on the basis of a standard National Health Service contract and will be monitored according to the Quality Schedule within that. Additional quality measures will also be regularly evaluated such as patient experience, Friends and Family Test, course attendance and feedback from clinical leads.
