We need your help to improve inpatient care so that every stay in a hospital for someone with diabetes is as safe as possible. At the moment it’s not. You can help us improve inpatient care for people with diabetes by sharing your experiences and by helping us build a plan for the future. Find out how you can get involved by emailing inpatientcare@diabetes.org.uk.
Why inpatient care needs to improve for people with diabetes
One in six hospital beds is occupied by someone with diabetes. That’s around 1 million admissions for people with diabetes every year. Despite this the national diabetes inpatient audit shows that all too often hospitals are not giving people with diabetes the care they need during hospital stays. In 2016:
- 3000 people needed treatment for DKA in hospital
- 125,000 people had a hypo in hospital, and 12,500 required rescue treatment
- Nearly two in five inpatients experienced a medication error
What are we doing about it?
-
Finding out what works and sharing it
We know from the NaDIA that some hospitals have made fantastic improvements in care for their patients with diabetes in hospital. All this good practice is available on our Shared Practice Library for others to adapt. Here, you can find examples of how hospitals have improved insulin safety, reduced episodes of hypoglycaemia and DKA, and educated frontline staff.
-
Identifying where diabetes inpatient teams need extra support
Hospital are under immense pressure and demand to reach targets which can lead to stretched, underperforming services. We want to know your biggest challenges in delivering good diabetes inpatient care. That way we can develop resources and work streams to support you.
-
Developing a roadmap outlining a strategy for improvement
We’ll use what we find out from you and everyone else involved in inpatient care to develop a roadmap which outlines the future for diabetes inpatient care. This will be released in early 2018. We will be building this in partnership with you.
How we can help you now
- Access useful resources and good practice in inpatient care with our Shared Practice Library.
The Inpatient Care Improvement Project is supported by a financial grant from Sanofi
