Parliament bill launched calling for specialist monitoring of diabetes in hospital

An MP wants to introduce a new law to ensure people with diabetes are properly monitored while in hospital.
More than one fifth of people with diabetes have a hypoglycemic episode during a hospital stay and almost 40 per cent experience medication errors, according to the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA).
Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, the chair of the All-Parliamentary Party Group for Diabetes, which commissioned the report, is now campaigning for legal care requirements for specialist diabetes care in hospitals.
The MP for Leicester East presented the Diabetes Inpatient Care Bill 2016-17 last week in the House of Commons as a Private Member’s Bill.
It states: “Bill to require the Secretary of State to ensure that all diabetic patients are identified on admittance to hospital and have their diabetes condition monitored while in hospital by a specialist diabetes team; and for connected purposes.”
The first reading took place on Thursday 15 December 15 and is due to be discussed in February.
Private Member’s Bills are presented to parliaments by individual politicians as opposed to a government and must successfully go through several phases before becoming law. While most are unsuccessful they do help to raise awareness of particular problems or challenges.
Audit lead clinician Dr Gerry Rayman said: “Since 2010, the NaDIA has been an excellent tool for highlighting specific issues in patient care and driving forward changes that can save lives, improve inpatient experiences and save money for hospital trusts.
“Despite significant results in some areas, others remain static and will continue to do so until the existing overstretched specialist teams, who do an amazing job, are better supported and trusts who have no inpatient diabetes service are commissioned to provide this.”