Above and Beyond

The submission deadline for the Diabetes Transformation Fund is today at 5pm.

I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from everyone across the country involved in creating these extensive and complicated bids.

And you are all absolutely amazing. 

Hours and hours of meetings and work have been ploughed into developing the bids.  Putting a finger in the wind I suspect that nearly every CCG in the country will be a part of one or more bids.   That’s absolutely fantastic.  To complete the documents required has been a labour of love.   As always, NHS staff, have given up hours of their own time to ensure that they have submitted the best bids they can.  It also demonstrates the importance that CCGs/STPs/Providers places on care for people with diabetes. They have gone above and beyond to get the best they can for people with diabetes.

Everyone has approached the bids in different ways.  Some have done a careful analysis of local needs and have bid for their priority area in the 4 bid categories (Multidisciplinary Foot Care Teams, Diabetes Inpatient Nursing, Treatment targets and Structured Patient Education).  Some have hedged their bets and have put in a bid for all 4 categories.  Some have bid as a single CCG and some have bid in line with local patient pathways or STP footprints.  Some CCGs have done a single bid and a collaborative bid.

All have gone above and beyond. All have worked extremely hard.  If the bid evaluation was just based on effort and commitment alone everyone deserves some funding to support their plans for diabetes.

However, we know that if nearly every CCG does have at least 1 or more bids the chances are that it will add up to more than the £44m pot available.  We know that this is competitive process.  We know that there is potential for some to have put the effort in but will be disappointed. This funding will not solve all the issues that we are being asked to address, through the "STP Diabetes Aide Memoire" but every bit will help. 

Whatever happens, the richness of conversations that the bid process has created has been fantastic.  The discussions across boundaries, the further understanding of local need prompted by the bid process can only go towards supporting what has to be delivered in the CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework and the Diabetes STP Aide Memoire. None of this effort will be wasted

Ultimately you had to be in it in win it.  Everyone has done their level best to compete for a little bit extra for their local services.  Like an exam, you have done all the hard work, you have done everything you can.

We hope to hear the outcome of the bids by mid March 2017.

You have all gone above and beyond.  You are all amazing.  Good luck.