April 15, 2025
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, diabetes services in the UK took place predominantly face-to-face. As infections spread across the UK and lockdown began in March 2020, most face-to-face services were put on hold. Kent and Medway ICB recognised the impact this had on patients referred for diabetes education services and wanted to find a solution to help reduce their waiting list and restore pre-COVID-19 levels.
Solution
In March 2021, Kent and Medway ICB recognised their waiting list for diabetes education for people living with Type 2 diabetes in their region was growing and worked in partnership with Spirit Health to roll out EMPOWER.
EMPOWER is provided by Spirit Health and is a four-hour education program designed to help individuals better understand Type 2 diabetes, its effects on the body, and how to make small, achievable changes to their diet and daily routines. The course has demonstrated proven clinical results, with participants achieving a 16.4% relative reduction in HbA1c1.
The EMPOWER team contacted everyone on Kent and Medway’s existing waiting list who had been referred since April 2020, but had been unable to access their vital diabetes education. Patients were offered EMPOWER over video conferencing as an alternative option whilst traditional face-to-face options were unavailable.
EMPOWER was delivered by trained educators directly over Microsoft Teams to patient groups of up to 12 people in their own home. This mimicked the content and feel of a traditional face-to-face EMPOWER session, while maintaining social distancing.
Results
Kent and Medway ICB were able to offer courses to its patients who needed structured diabetes education.
Since commencing support in April to July 2021, EMPOWER has:
- Contacted all patients who were on the original waiting list of 862.
- 309 of these patients have attended an EMPOWER course to receive their education.
- 119 patients opted for the face-to-face option which was offered at local venues throughout the area.
- Contacted all GP practices to let them know of their patients’ attendance and those declining to attend, advising of the relevant SNOMED codes.
Through EMPOWER’s solutions, the ICB successfully reduced their waiting list, ensuring patients received the critical education they needed.
Being able to resume diabetes education virtually has been so important to our patients’ health and wellbeing, especially while these patients remain at high risk of COVID-19. Working with Spirit Health to provide quick additional capacity of digital education services has been invaluable to the system, working at pace has meant we have been able to reduce our backlog within months rather than years. EMPOWER is now being considered as a permanent course offered across Kent and Medway.
Ian Butcher, Diabetes & CVD Transformation and Development Manager, NHS Kent & Medway ICB
[1] Sutton D et al. Structured Diabetes Education: virtual access was as effective as face-to-face access to a structured diabetes education programme (EMPOWER T2n) for people with type 2
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