Diabetes inpatient care bill set for parliament debate in May

A proposed new law calling for people with diabetes to have specialist monitoring during hospital visits will be debated in parliament in May.
The bill submitted by Labour MP Keith Vaz would see people with diabetes be flagged up when they are admitted to hospital and receive dedicated care throughout their stay.
Mr Vaz is the Chair of the All-Parliamentary Party Group for Diabetes and presented the Diabetes Inpatient Care Bill 2016-17 back in December.
The Private Members’ Bill reads: “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.”
Audit findings
The forthcoming debate follows the National Diabetes Audit 2015-16 report, published earlier this month, which revealed that 17 per cent of beds were occupied by a person with diabetes in 2016. This percentage has increased each year since 2011.
Moreover, a total of one in 25 inpatients who had type 1 diabetes went on to develop diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) during their stay. Almost half of patients treated with insulin had a medicationerror during their hospital stay.
In terms of staffing, around a quarter of hospital sites lack a diabetes specialist nurse and a quarter lack a multi-disciplinary foot care team.
MPs will discuss the proposed legislation on Friday 12 May, when it goes before the House of Commons for its second reading, but they cannot make any changes at this stage. At the end of the session there will be a vote to decide whether it continues.
If the bill gets the green light to progress then it will be go before a committee before the report stage and a third reading. If it succeeds in the House of Commons then it will have to go through a similar path in the House of Lords.