Olympic gold medallist opens new Leicester Diabetes Centre

Five-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave will officially open the new Leicester Diabetes Centre on Thursday 7 November 2013.

The Leicester Diabetes Centre is an alliance between the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (Leicester's Hospitals), the University of Leicester, the local community and Primary Care and is located at Leicester General Hospital. 

The multi-million pound facility is one of the largest diabetes centres in Europe and is set to improve the lives of people with diabetes, their families and their carers. It brings together expertise in clinical research from the Leicester's Hospitals together with the world-class academic expertise of the University to tackle diabetes.

Diabetes is an increasing problem in society, necessitating investment into diabetes research to ensure that patients receive the best possible treatment. The new Centre will provide a designated clinical research space to make this possible. 

Professor Melanie Davies, Professor of Diabetes Medicine and Co-Director of the Centre said: "The focus of the Leicester Diabetes Centre's research is to improve outcomes and the health of people with diabetes and to stop those at high risk of type 2 diabetes developing it at all.

"Our team is established as one of the leading clinical research groups for diabetes in Europe and globally. Over the last five years, we have published more than 300 original research publications and have attracted more than £30 million of new funding for research to Leicester. Our work has brought benefits to hundreds of thousands of people with diabetes across the UK and this new facility will enable us to continue to achieve great things."

The new Leicester Diabetes Centre will enable all researchers to work together on one site for the first time. This will ensure that the world class diabetes research taking place is at the forefront of fighting the disease.

One focus for the Centre will be on finding new ways of identifying people at high risk of diabetes and developing effective interventions to stop, slow and treat the condition.

Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Co-Director added: "The new Leicester Diabetes Centre brings together this team in one location for the first time. We now have in excess of 3600m² of state-of-the-art facilities for clinical research, teaching and training, making it one of the largest and best equipped units in the UK."

A bespoke exercise laboratory, designed to determine which physical activities are best suited for patients with diabetes, will be available. The Centre is also committed to training healthcare professionals to provide greater support to patients at risk and with diabetes.

Tim Skelton, Senior Manager of the Leicester Diabetes Centre explained: "I am very excited about how the patient experience in our research facility has been improved. With this new facility, we have created a space that is welcoming and calm. It is really important to us that each patient gets the very best treatment and as diabetes is a rising issue in society, there is a need for us to continue to research the best ways of achieving this."

One of the most significant investments on the site is the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit, which will look into how people with diabetes can manage their lifestyle and a clinical trials unit to continue to explore innovative treatments.

Sir Steve Redgrave, who has diabetes himself, will be opening the Centre at Leicester General Hospital on Thursday 7 November at 1:30pm.

Source: National Institute for Health Research