Diabetes UK - Making hospitals safe for people with diabetes (2017)

Summary

Staying in hospital can be a frightening experience for people with diabetes. In 2017, an estimated 9,600 people required rescue treatment after falling into a coma following a severe hypoglycaemic attack in hospital and 2,200 people suffered from Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) due to under treatment with insulin.

This report by Diabetes UK outlines the patient safety issues and suggests the following measures are needed to make hospitals safer for people with diabetes:

• multidisciplinary diabetes inpatient teams in all hospitals
• better support in hospitals for people to take ownership of their diabetes
• better access to systems and technology more support to help hospitals learn from mistakes
• strong clinical leadership from diabetes inpatient teams
• knowledgeable healthcare professionals who understand diabetes.