Perioperative management

NHS Diabetes has published Management of adults with diabetes undergoing surgery and elective procedures: improving standards.

These guidelines have been commissioned by NHS Diabetes and written by the Joint British Diabetes Societies Inpatient Care Group and representatives from the specialist societies surgeons and anaesthetists.

The document has also been informed by focus groups from Diabetes UK.

The aim of the guidelines is to improve standards of care for people with diabetes undergoing operative or investigative procedures requiring a period of starvation.

The guidelines emphasise the need for patient centred care at every stage and we hope that they will be of use to all healthcare professionals whose work brings them into contact with this vulnerable group of patients.

This document is addressed to those writing and implementing local perioperative care policies and to medical and nursing educators. Managers have a responsibility to ensure that guidelines based on these recommendations are put in place. The guidelines aim to cover all stages of the patient pathway but are not designed to be read from cover to cover. Recommendations for each stage are intended to stand alone so that individual health care professionals can identify their role in the process.

Download: Management of adults with diabetes undergoing surgery and elective procedures: improving standards. Summary Report (PDF 454KB) , Full Report (PDF 939KB)