A new audit has been launched to help hospital staff reduce the amount of serious diabetes-related complications experienced by inpatients.
The National Diabetes Inpatient Audit – Harms (NaDIA-Harms) forms part of the National Diabetes Audit (NDA) and is being implemented by NHS Digital.
It has been developed to monitor the rates of four complications: severe hypoglycaemia, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), Hyperosmolar Hyperglycaemic State (HHS) and foot ulcers. The audit will record how often each of these complications occur within hospital stays for people with diabetes.
Severe hypoglycemia occurs when blood sugar drops too low, DKA occurs when the body starts running out of insulin, HHS too is related to overly high blood glucose levels and foot ulcers can develop from unhealed damage to the foot like blisters and cuts.
It is hoped recording the number of diabetes-related complications that occur during someone’s stay in hospital will help form new ways of working in a bid to prevent them from happening to future patients.
Figures released last year suggested at least one in six of all hospital beds are taken by people with diabetes, and it is hoped this audit will help healthcare professionals be able to identify signs of complications earlier.
As part of the audit, healthcare professionals who work in hospitals are being asked to submit data on diabetes-related issues. The audit requires continuous data collection and the results will be compiled and released at a later date.
A lot of the time people with diabetes are admitted for an issue completely unrelated to their condition, but according to NaDIA 2016, one in 25 of those with type 1 diabetes developed DKA because they were not given the right amount of insulin.
A patient leaflet has been released so people can understand what is being done with their data and why. NHS England said patients can opt out of being included in the audit if they choose to.
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