The National Diabetes Inpatient Audit for England & Wales for 2012 hit the press at the end of June with the strapline of ‘shocking failings in hospital care’. Diabetes UK led with the finding that, in the five-day period of the audit in September 2012, over sixty people with diabetes developed diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Whilst this is clearly not good, at least it is understandable, given that concomitant illness is a common factor in the development of DKA (and presumably the inpatients were all unwell). More worrying to me were the high levels of hypoglycaemia (‘hypo’) since these would have been iatrogenic, that is, caused by excessive drug administration and/or lack of nutrition, and therefore, be attributable to hospital staff.

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