Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSCall for child diabetes funding to cut emergency admissions
More investment in appropriate care and advice for children with diabetes would cut the number of emergency admissions “significantly”, a charity has said.
There were 3,345 emergency admissions among under-18s in England for the 12 months to April 2009, the data, released by Diabetes UK, revealed.
The youngsters were admitted for diabetic ketoacidosis, which occurs when blood glucose levels are too high.
Children accounted for around a quarter of all the 13,465 emergency admissions for diabetic ketoacidosis, the figures showed.
The data for the 12 months to April last year showed overall number of admissions for the condition has risen almost 9% since 2006.
Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: “We know from our previous research that specialist diabetes staff report an increase in emergency hospital admissions whenever there are cuts in services.
“The number of emergency admissions could be reduced significantly with investment in appropriate care, diabetes advice and practical self-management support.”
All the under-18s admitted to A&E in the data had Type 1 diabetes.
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