The project consisted of the diabetes specialist nurses making themselves available to see patients from A&E or the ambulatory care unit from 8am-2pm mon-fri, so that patients with diabetes related problems only could be seen and discharged instead of them being admitted.
The A&E department were able to book the patient into slots within the ambulatory care unit for patients to return to, so that those patients that would have previously been admitted over a weekend could now be safely discharged to come back to have the issue dealt with.
The aim was for 1 admission a week to be prevented in the 4 months since it has started 20 admissions have been prevented at a cost saving of £8,500.
The aim is now to get an increase in staffing numbers to be able to extend the service into the evening and possibly the weekend.