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Hospital staff urged to improve knowledge to avoid diabetes-related hospital mistakes

DCUK NewsBot

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Two Scottish women with type 1 diabetes are calling for hospital staff to be better trained in treating the condition after they both became seriously ill during their stay. Joanna Traynor, 47, woke from an eye operation in Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital and was violently sick. She had not been given any insulin, despite warning staff she would need some, which caused high levels of ketones in her blood. A similar experience of not having insulin happened to Nicole Scottsville, 31, when she was admitted to St John's Hospital in Livingston. She was eight months pregnant at the time and staff managed her insulin intake. Speaking to the Daily Record newspaper, the 31-year-old said: "The nurse removed my sliding scale [insulin] so I could go to the toilet and when I returned she said she would reattach it but I fell asleep because I was so unwell and she didn't return until over five hours later." In Joanna's case, her pump was removed before her operation, leaving her without any back-up insulin. She said: "I removed my insulin pump before theatre and told the anaesthetist I had no background insulin working. I woke up and couldn't catch my breath. I was being sick and had pads over both eyes for the next 14 hours. "I had to get them to find my meter and strips that I use to check - all while being sick, unable to see or breathe and begging for insulin." A programme to improve healthcare professionals' knowledge of diabetes and treatment for the condition has been developed by Diabetes Scotland. Health boards are being encouraged to follow the initiative in a bid to avoid short-term diabetes-related complications, such as hypoglycemia and ketoacidosis, when people are staying in hospital. Acting national director Claire Fleming said: "We champion the new inpatient care programme which provides diabetes training and ensures healthcare teams understand the condition and how to manage it." A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "We are very sorry to hear that Ms Traynor was unhappy with the care she received."

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"Unhappy"? I bet she was livid and rightly so. This is totally unacceptable and is tantamount to criminal neglect.
 
Those poor ladies! This is horrifying and the description - "being sick, unable to see or breathe, begging for insulin" - sounds like a torture chamber. How do these people not understand T1's need insulin!! If I ever go to hospital, I am NOT giving up my pump or supplies (why wasn't the lady's meter put next to her bed for her to use if she wanted?)
 
In my experience, there is very little knowledge of Type 1 by many medical staff in hospitals. My own hospital consultant has virtually admitted this to me and my local diabetic nurse recently told me that during nursing training, half a day is spent on diabetic care.
 
I spent 10 minutes with the anaesthetist before my operation showing him how to test my blood sugar, suspend my pump or give mini correction bolus if necessary. They kept my pump on and protected it from x-ray during the operation. That was The Royal Berks in Reading.
My usual hospital is Basingstoke. They leave me with my pump on too as I and the diabetic team insist. Not sure what would happen if I were unconscious and unable to insist.
 
I hoped things had improved in over 30 years but obviously not.

In 1985 I was to be induced early for the birth of my son. I had a pessary inserted the night before, in the labour ward and was told not to eat my bedtime snack, in case "we have to act quickly to bring on baby". I was told my son's heartbeat was twice what it should be, due to the pessary. I was attached to a foetal heart monitor and waited, watching the flashing red heart. At about 1am I told the sister I was seeing double (I was seeing two flashing red hearts), so was hypo. The glucose monitor I'd been given by the diabetic clinic had been put in the cabinet which I couldn't reach. The sister was obviously quite flustered. She told me to eat my snack and rushed to get me a cup of tea, as "baby is all right now". I don't know for how long baby had been ok but obviously Sister had forgotten about my snack.

The following morning I was wakened about 6am and told to go for a shower, before they broke my waters. I was so so tired, I couldn't think straight. It didn't occur to me that I was hypo - again my blood hadn't been checked. I sat on a stool thinking I was going home that day, till a nurse came and urged me to get in the shower.

It was only later when I was back in bed, waiting for it all to start, that I realised what had happened. Luckily I have dawn phenomenon, so my blood sugar must have started rising as soon as I got up for my shower. It could have been so different!
 
It is really worrying knowing that you can't leave your care to the professionals. As I've mentioned before on this forum, I was let out of hospital early after my triple heart bypass on the recommendation of the hospital diabetic specialist, so I could go home and get my sugar levels sorted. She knew the ward staff didn't know how to cope with Type 1.
 

Considering how many people have some type of diabetes this is ridiculous! More time should be spent on common problems, and extra time for T1 because obviously nobody has the faintest idea.
 
phdiabetic said:
Considering how many people have some type of diabetes this is ridiculous! More time should be spent on common problems, and extra time for T1 because obviously nobody has the faintest idea.
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Thankfully my nurse is very dedicated to her job and she herself is trying to raise awareness but being held back by government funding.
 
Similar experiences though at least my hospital called over the DSN to advise. I was in hospital when getting steroids just in case my youngest son needed to be delivered early (thankfully he made it to 35 weeks and is now 10 years old).
I refused the sliding scale and just administered my own insulin and did my own tests. Now I have a pump but would always bring in some back up basal in case I could not take it into surgery.
I dread to think what might happen if I was less confident with my management or afraid to question dubious advice. These kind of mistakes can be fatal at worst and really unpleasant and stressful at best.
 
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