Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients with diabetes have suffered from hypoglycemic shock while staying in hospital in each of the last three years.

Information is available on the proportion of inpatients in England and Wales with diabetes experiencing mild and/or severe hypoglycaemic episodes in the seven days prior to the date of the audit. The latest results are published in the 2017 National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA), covering the years 2011 to 2017. A summary of the results for the last three available years from 2015 to 2017 is in the following table:

Notes:

1. Reference to associated analysis: NaDIA 2017 annual report, slide 81:

https://files.digital.nhs.uk/powerpoint/s/5/nadia-17-rep.pptx

2. A patient was included in the audit if they had been admitted to a hospital bed for 24 hours or more. Patients on an obstetric or paediatric ward were excluded from this audit. Mental health wards were also excluded due to the high prevalence of long stay patients. Other exclusions included:

- Patients who were hyperglycaemic but not yet formally diagnosed with diabetes;

- Accident and Emergency;

- Day case ward;

- Day surgery unit patients;

- Observation ward (if patients had been admitted for less than 24 hours);

- Surgical short stay unit (if patients had been admitted for less than 24 hours);

- Palliative care centres; and

- Community hospitals.

3. Mild hypoglycaemic episode; Blood glucose level = 3.0-3.9mmol/L.
4. Severe hypoglycaemic episode; Blood glucose level less than 3.0mmol/l.
5. There was no NaDIA collection or report in 2014.