National Diabetes Inpatient Safety Audit highlights lack of insulin training

More than 70 per cent of health care settings provide staff with appropriate insulin training, the latest National Diabetes Inpatient Safety Audit has identified.

Dr Alistair Lumb, Consultant in Diabetes, presented the findings of the audit during the Diabetes UK Professional Conference (DUKPC) 2023, which show that nearly 30 per cent of healthcare providers do not offer professional insulin training to the workforce.

The audit is a national review of inpatient settings in England and Wales compared against the 2020 GIRFT recommendations.

According to the results, 27 per cent of inpatient settings have a suitable system to detect individuals with diabetes when they are admitted. 

The National Diabetes Inpatient Safety Audit (NDISA) has published four recommendations to improve hospital care for people living with the condition.

These include:

• All NHS Trusts in England and Local Health Boards in Wales should participate in NDISA data collection.

• Healthcare providers should have a multidisciplinary diabetes inpatient team and be working towards providing base-level diabetes cover at weekends.

• Healthcare providers should have networked blood glucose meters to alert staff when recorded glucose levels are out-of-range.

• All participating organisations should have a policy to support diabetes self-management in hospital.