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A Kettering General Hospital eye team have won a national diabetes excellence award for the service they provide at a new one-stop ophthalmology suite.

The Trust’s Ophthalmology Team started delivering eye injections to patients at a £250,000 state-of-the-art suite which opened in January this year at Nene Park Outpatients Centre near Irthlingborough.

They were shortlisted as finalists in the Diabetes Nursing Awards 2025 in May for the service delivered and have now won the Excellence Award category.

Sister Trina Perkins, a nurse specialist in ophthalmology said: ““The award ceremony was very exciting. We felt like winners just for being nominated.

“When we heard our names being called out as the winners, we were all ecstatic and jumped for joy. All the hard work over the years was recognised for our amazing diabetic team and we were awarded the excellence award

“This award has meant so much to us to win. It is a recognition for all the hard work that goes into the service, to enable us to offer our patients a gold standard of excellent care.

“We are always looking at innovation and how we can continuously improve the diabetic service, with new ways of working for patient centred care.

“This is only the beginning, we strive to do our very best on a daily basis, to ensure the patients are cared for with professionalism, pride and in a timely manner.”

The eye injection suite at Nene Park provides care for patients with conditions like diabetic retinopathy - a diabetes-related eye condition that affects the retina when high blood sugar levels cause damage to the blood vessels in the retina, leading to vision problems and potentially blindness if left untreated.

Therefore, it is essential for patients with diabetic retinopathy to receive specialist treatment in specialist units to manage their condition and maintain their sight.

In response to the demand for urgent eye injections the Trust developed a specialist Ophthalmic Eye Suite, to ensure eye injections can be delivered more quickly to the 4,000 patients with diabetic retinopathy who need regular injections each year.

Sister Lisa Coleman said: “Entering for the awards felt right because of the benefits and teamwork that went into developing this dedicated service for diabetic eye patients.

“Our consultants work alongside the nurse-led injection sessions running one-stop clinics. to accommodate patients who need eye injections in a single location, at the point of their clinic appointment.

“Offering this service is a positive approach to preventing vision loss and improving the overall quality of life for our diabetic patients. 

What the service has done

The eye injection suite development has had many benefits including:

• Freeing up hospital operating theatres to perform more ophthalmic operations
• Providing a one-stop service that is nurse-led which means assessments and injections can all be done on the day
• Saved money on using private health firms to deliver the eye injections to keep up with demand – saving up to £420,000 per year
• Plans to further increase activity to enable more injections to be delivered seven days a week

KGH Service Support Manager for ophthalmology Lorraine Summers said: “This is a fantastic achievement and a testament to all the hard work, dedication and collaborative effort that has gone into delivering high quality care for our patients. It wonderful to see the teams commitment to excellence being recognised at this level. Your continued efforts make a real difference to patient outcomes and experience.”

The judges highlighted the team’s commitment to delivering high-quality, streamlined and personalised care as a clear example of excellence in diabetes service delivery.

The awards were presented during a ceremony held at the Radisson Blu, Bloomsbury in London on Friday, June 6, hosted by Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE. Organised by Orange Juice Communications, the event brought together diabetes care professionals from across the UK to celebrate innovation, dedication and nursing excellence. 

Diabetes Nursing Awards event organiser Emily Mayhew said:  "The team exemplifies excellence in action. Their approach to delivering diabetes eye care is efficient, compassionate and genuinely transformational – a truly deserving winner of this year’s Excellence Award."