First ever national Care Home Diabetes Audit

Care homes across England are being asked to take part in a Diabetes Audit, as part of a national initiative launched by the Institute of Diabetes for Older People (IDOP).

With the proportion of care home residents with diabetes already estimated as at least 27%, the Institute is hoping to use its findings in order to present a powerful case to regulatory body the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as to quality standards that its inspectors can add to their assessments.

Leading the audit, IDOP director and national clinical lead for diabetes in older people Alan Sinclair comments: “The primary purposes of this audit are firstly, to ascertain what areas of diabetes care within residential settings can be further supported and secondly, to gain better insight into the difficulties of providing enhanced care.

“This audit has the potential to improve care for older people with diabetes living in care homes in England, and give insight on how to provide staff with the training and support that they need, as well as assisting managers and policymakers to allocate resources.”

The information acquired by the audit will not be used to identify individual services but will form anonymous data, sourced via questionnaires and with the key findings available to interested participants.

IDOP’s national guidance on diabetes in care homes in already available to interested home owners and carers, published as ‘Diabetes UK’ in 2010, but the Institute is hoping that collaboration with the care sector will allow its expertise to reach more and more services, with the support of the professional organisation for medical diabetes specialists the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD).