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The team does not and cannot offer clinical advice. If you have any urgent medical enquiries we urge you to contact your GP, or NHS Direct at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk or by calling 0845 4647. In an emergency call 999
NHS Diabetes is the essential link between diabetes strategy and frontline service improvements for patients. Through our integrated work programmes we are able to provide national leadership and direction and support local organisations working to champion good quality diabetes care.
If this is your first visit to our website please take some time to have a look at the wide range of resources we have available to support you to improve diabetes care. Below you will find more information on our safety work programme.
Latest Module
Are you insulin safe?
Did you know:
- 1 in 5 patients on an inpatient ward has
diabetes1
- Around 4 in 10 inpatients with diabetes
experience a medication error1
- Since 2003 insulin errors have led to over
17,000 safety incidents2
- And, most importantly,
- Insulin safety training is now a requirement for
all those who prescribe, prepare, handle or administer insulin.2
1 National Patient Safety Agency 2010 Rapid Response Report. 2 National Diabetes Inpatient Audit 2010: bedside clinical data collected from 12,191 inpatients at 206 acute hospitals.
You can access our free online Safe Use of Insulin e-learning module here. The module is simple to follow and quick to complete. Over 70,000 healthcare professionals have already registered for it have you?
Other safety e-learning modules
We have also developed a free e-learning module on intravenous insulin infusion and will shortly be publishing two further modules. Find out more by using the links below:
- Intravenous Insulin Infusions launched in September 2011
- Safe Management of Hypoglycaemia launching in Spring 2012
- Safe Use of Oral Anti-Hyperglycaemic Agents launching in Spring 2012
Background
In 2010 the National Patient Safety Agency issued a Rapid Response Report showing over 5,000 patient safety incidents were reported between 2003 and 2009 in England and Wales. The figures included one death and one case of severe harm that occurred after clinicians misinterpreted the abbreviation of the term unit. A further three deaths and 17 other incidents occurred between January 2005 and July 2009 where an intravenous syringe was used to measure and administer insulin.
Contact
For more information contact Helen Wilkinson project lead for NHS Diabetes for safety at: helen.wilkinson@diabetes.nhs.uk
SUI Podcasts
Resources
- Safe use of insulin press release (Word 314KB)
- Safe use of insulin screensaver (GIF 150.7KB)
- Safe use of insulin slideshow (PPT 1.7MB)
- SUI poster campaign - Poster 1 (JPEG K1.2MB)
- SUI poster campaign - Poster 2 (JPEG 1.3MB)
- SUI poster campaign - Poster 3 (JPEG 1.3MB)
- Recognition, treatment and prevention of hypoglycaemia in the community, Dec 2011 (PDF 637KB)
Insulin Passport
If Trusts would like their own logo adding along with contact details please contact June James at University Hospitals Leicester:
june.james@uhl-tr.nhs.uk
