HEALTH chiefs in Southampton have created a new clinical post in a move being hailed as a "watershed moment" in the battle against diabetes.

The organisation that runs two of the city's hospitals -Princess Anne and Southampton General - has appointed the country's first consultant pharmacist in diabetes and endocrinology.

As reported in the Daily Echo, about 12,000 people in Southampton are diabetic.

Two years ago research carried out by Diabetes UK led to the city being named as one of the worst in the UK for limb amputations stemming from the illness.

The new consultant is the award-winning Philip Newland-Jones, has been part of the in-patient diabetes team at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust since 2008.

After joining the organisation he helped launch daily bedside clinics for people with the condition.

A pilot project involving 400 patients led to the prevention of 45 medication errors, a reduction in readmission rates from 8.91 per cent to five per cent and a reduction in length of in-patient stays.

Mr Newland-Jones, the lead pharmacist for NHS England’s Diabetes Clinical Reference Group, started developing the new consultant role in 2015.

The post enables him to share prescribing responsibilities with diabetes consultants as well as leading ward rounds and carrying out post-discharge patient reviews.

Now, other health trusts are set to follow suit and make similar appointments, enabling the progress made in Southampton to be repeated across across the UK.

"This is a fantastic development for pharmacy and diabetes and is a major step in the right direction for diabetes nationally," said Mr Newland-Jones.

"We're witnessing a decline in diabetes nurse specialists and registrars but we have pharmacists already based in hospitals who can develop into diabetes specialists and plug the gaps."

The new role was welcomed by Dr Mayank Patel, a specialist nurse and a dietician employed by the trust.

He said: "Having made such progress in diabetes care in recent years we feel the creation of this post will move us to the next level. We are delighted to be the first to go down this route – it's a watershed moment for pharmacists and diabetes care.

"We've already had great interest in the position from consultants and diabetes teams across the country."

As reported in the Daily Echo, Mr Newland-Jones and Dr Patel collected the Team of the Year accolade at the 2012 Hospital Heroes awards run by the trust.

They received their certificate from Hampshire-based broadcaster Esther Rantzen, who has a home in the New Forest.